Dawnguard

Chapters

Chapter 1 - First Day Back
Chapter 2 - Dreamwalker
Chapter 3 - Run ins
Chapter 4 - Leeway
Chapter 5 - Lonely
Chapter 6 - Lucidity
Chapter 7 - Cups of coffee
Chapter 8 - Letters home
Chapter 9 - Xiphis
Chapter 10 - Homeword Bound

Chapter 1 - First Day Back

“Dawn! Dawn get down here! I need to make sure you’re ready for college!” Yelled Dawn’s overprotective mother up the stairs of their small house in the outskirts of Fillydelfia.

“Coming mum!” Dawn shouted back and pulled her saddlebags over her back, “Whats for breakfast?” Her new bags didn’t rub against her wings like her old school bags did, the ones her mother had picked out for her matched her grey coat perfectly.

Her dad replied in his characteristic sarcastic tone, “Food.” Ratchet wasn’t exactly one for making things easier.

Dawn jumped excitedly down the bottom three stairs and sauntered into the kitchen to show off to her parents how well the deep purple bags went with her coat. “What sorta food dad?” she asked as she sat down across from her newspaper reading father, pushing some of her black and purple mane out of her eyes. The kitchen was simple but homely, the large table in the center of the room taking up most of the space. The other kitchen worktops were around the outside of the room, the sink below the window where a few little potted plants had been neatly placed.

“The edible sort.” Ratchet yawned, lowering his coffee mug and stretching his lean, grey wings high above his sleepy head. “Quizzy how are you so energetic having not gotten home till at least twelve last night?”

Quizzical, (she went by Quizzy) Dawn’s mother snorted dismisively and began to dish out their breakfast, veggie bacon, eggs and toast, “A mixture of caffeine and experience darling.” Quizzy answered in her soft and silky voice before sitting down herself close to her beloved and beginning to crunch hungrily on some toast.

Dawn smiled at her parents awkward conversation before pouringb herself a glass of orange juice, stay into at the cream walls of the room before looking towards her mother. “Mum you do realize that we did these checks over the weekend about five times, I have everything I could possibly want or need for college… and more.”

Quizzy snorted again and took a long drink from her teacup. “I want to make sure you know which way to go too.” She said in a dismissive manner, trying to pass over the fact that she had probably spent about five hundred bits getting her daughter academically ready to go to college.

Ratchet spoke up after finishing a mouthful of his breakfast. “Excuse me Quizzy, but I have been with Dawn two times to get to Filly-College and she knows exactly where she’s going.” He looked at Quizzy in a hopeful manner, knowing he probably shouldn’t argue with her.

“Um yeah, mum I know how to get to college, I have been there like, five times for the induction stuff.” Dawn said pointedly, “Anyway, I’m meeting up with Legacy at her house and we’re walking in together.” Legacy was one of Dawn’s oldest friends, they’d known each other since preschool. Legacy was a real high school diva and being that Dawn wasn’t themost popular girl in the playground, having probably the most popular girl for a best friendisn’t far off.

“Fine then, but i’m walking you to Legacy’s house, I don’t want you wandering about on your own in case you do get lost.” Quizzy said, putting her hoof down and making Ratchet sigh quietly.

“I’m pretty sure you’re still overreacting Quizzy.” Ratchet said and put down his now empty coffee cup. “But if you are hell bent on walking Dawn to her best friend's house where she’s probably been about thirty or more times in the past year, I know there’s no stopping you.”

Hearing his snarky remark, Quizzy rounded on Ratchet and employed her technique that always got her hubby to shut up. She snuggled up beside him adorably and pulled his wing round her shoulders as if she were cold. This brought a bright blush to Ratchet’s cheeks that made him look like a red lightbulb with wings. It also made Dawn giggle at her father’s obvious discomfort at Quizzy’s sudden very close proximity.

“Fine I’ll stop complaining and let you do whatever you want dear.” Ratchet purred as he planted a soppy kiss on his wife’s nose. “Just don’t embarrass Dawny too much, and if you stay for tea, do bring some of Heirloom’s cookies back. I'd kill for her shortbread."

“Wouldn’t want you to miss out on that.” Quizzy purred back as she briefly hugged him with her own wing before clambering out from under his warm fuzz where Dawn had spend many an hour under watching scary films. “Anyway, let me unnecessarily faff about upstairs before coming back down wearing my scarf.” She joked before skipping upstairs.

Dawn continued giggling at her dad’s bright red face. “Mum just seems to be getting madder and madder every day.” She chortled into her hoof, “But I do hope she doesn’t take too long upstairs, I don’t want to make Legacy late waiting for me.”

Ratchet did his best to clear his blush by fanning himself with one of his powerful wings, sending a couple napkins dancing from the table into a forceful ballet around the room before coming to a jarring rest on the floor. “Tell me about it, she’s getting cuddly in bed again too, I'm pretty sure she broke my back last night” He said without noticing the slight blush it brought to his daughter’s cheeks.

About ten minutes and five slices of toast later, Quizzy bounded down the stairs like a loppy dog, her long black and white scarf trailing behind her. “Come on Dawny! Time for you to go go to college!” She announced and nuzzled a farewell to Ratchet.

Dawn did the same, nuzzling her dad before grabbing another slice of well buttered toast between her teeth and fastening her bags over her back, just next to where her cutiemark adorned her flanks. Hers was a dark purple cloud broken by a black starry path. “Bye dad!” she shouted from the door and received a cheery farewell from her well wishing father as he retreated into the workshop to continue his mechanical experimentation.

Dawn got her cutiemark when she was nine years old, when she found out that she was a member of an extremely rare group. she was, in fact, a dreamwalker. This meant she could enter the dreamscape completely at will. She can’t influence the dream world much, but she makes other uses for it's endless complexities. Most nights Dawn spends exploring the dreams of others and chatting to her friends through their mind’s eye. Dawn received her mind magic from her mother’s side of the family. Quizzy is what is formally known as an ‘Abstract’. This is a highly uncommon equine race that posses abilities which can be far stronger than those of normal ponyfolk. Dawn does not have the same magical prowess of her mother, due to her being half ‘Abstract’, half pegasus, a ‘Bokeh’. Despite Dawn being weaker magically than Quizzy, she still has abilities like reading others emotions and, of course, dreamwalking.

Twenty minutes of walking and chatting to each other about general goings on, the pair came to the long path up to the door of Legacy’s grand house. Dawn trotted up the tidy path to the porch and pressed the bell button on the door, the tone echoing through the many rooms in the stately home. Quickly, Dawn heard running hooves coming towards the door before it was flung open and she was pulled into a friendly embrace by her unicorn friend.

“Dawny!” Legacy squealed, squeezing dawn tight with her forelegs.

Dawn hugged her back, nuzzling her cheek, “Legacy! Can you let me breathe?” She wheezed, her lungs being crushed by the firm embrace from her surprisingly strong friend. Legacy quickly let Dawn go so she didn’t choke to death before cartoonishly yanking her inside.

Dawn was forcefully pulled upstairs by Legacy before she was tackled into another back breaking hug. Dawn squeaked before doing her best to hug her friend back even though she was being squished, crushed and in severe danger of having her eye removed by Legacy’s recklessly waving horn. “Ok Legacy! You’ve said hello!” Dawn panicked, having to push her friend’s horn away from her eye for a second time. The older unicorn pouted and stood up off her friend.

“Do I haaaave to stop hugging you?” Legacy complained, stroking a hoof down Dawn’s wing, “Your coat is so soft.” Dawn corrected her mane before sitting down in front of her friend, trying to hide her blush behind pretending to fix her feathers.

“Legacy, typically you don’t rub your face all over somepony just because you think their coat is particularly soft on that day.” Dawn said, trying to stop blushing like a mare on her honeymoon.

“Ugh fine!” Legacy huffed, starting to drag a brush through her tattered mane with her telekinesis. About ten minutes of gossip and mane brushing later Legacy declared herself fit

to begin the walk to college. Legacy and Dawn gave their final goodbyes to their parents and made a break for the door.

Along the way to college, the pair of ponies gossiped heartedly about what they think their old classmates will be like in college and compared their new saddlebags, even swapping them a couple of times to see how well they went with each other's coats.

After about ten minutes of walking and chatting together, they rounded through the gates to the college campus, all sorts of other ponies trotting past them to get to their first classes on time. The differences between the newer students and the seniors was obvious, the freshers were rushing between buildings either lost or believing themselves to be late. On the other hoof, the senior students were slowly sauntering to their classes like sloths.

Dawn and Legacy split up, saying their goodbyes till they should meet again. Legacy started strutting pointedly towards the fashion and textiles department.

Dawn, however, nervously began walking toward the department of magical studies, which as you could imagine, contained no other pegasi whatsoever. She would be an outsider to the rest of the students, and to the lecturers as well.

Dawn had aspirations that required her to join this difficult course, she wanted to become a member of Princess Luna’s Dreamguard. This means she must have an understanding of dream and mind manipulation magic and studying this degree will prove to the military quarter that she is able to use dream magic to a fine point. Having done her research, Dawn knew that holding such a qualification is crucial to join the prestigious garrison and be recognised in the halls of Canterlot castle.

She slowly pushed open the door to the nightmarishly large building with a deafeningly loud creak like a saw grinding across old wood and stepped in, shaking her wings. She drew eyes from the crowd of unicorn students and lowered her head, embarrassed to be the only non unicorn student in the building.

“Is she lost? Shouldn't she be in weather studies with rest of the pegasi?” Some of the other students sneered at her, not at all hiding their disdain for their bewinged peer.

“She’s just a pegasus, she’s too stupid to find her way to the weather studies class.” One of them spat, a taller unicorn stallion who quickly regretted his timing as they were spun forcibly round by their professor.

“Now that is not very polite, is it? That 'stupid pegasus' standing there is Moonlight Dawn and you!" He jabbed his hoof into the younger stallion's chest. "You should be looking up to the only student here who holds only A plus grades all round.” Teach told the group loudly, making dawn shiver with embarrassment of the professor yelling her top notch grades at her peers. Not to sniff at, the news of her grades being perfect did it’s job and shut the crowd up quickly. Now all eyes were on Dawn, not with disdain now, but now with slight awe and jealousy. Dawn could deal with disdain and dislike, but jealousy and awe were not what she had prepared herself for. So just as any pony would do, she made herself as small as possible, quietly creeping into the lecture theatre.

Ten minutes later, the theatre was full of chattering students, none of them sitting round Dawn, who had made a beeline for a corner seat as not to be bothered by any of her peers. The professor who had protected Dawn in the foyer made his way down to the lectern and began shouting out names.

“Ryko!” he shouted and received a dismissive answer from the other corner of the large auditoruim. “Lumen?” He received another answer, this time more enthusiastic, coming from the center of the room.

A couple names shouted later, Blue, Shire, Cobalt, Tiny. Dawn was called out and she replied with a shaky, “Y-Yes!” making half of her disapproving classmates turn round to stare terrifying daggers into her.

They all turned around as the teacher cleared his throat annoyed, then introduced himself as Crimson Spark and began to rant and rave about the syllabus and what the class will be learning. This rant went on for about half an hour before the lesson started properly, they were beginning on advanced mecha-arcanum structures, otherwise known as runes and arcane circles. Dawn knew from her previous studies that these structures were used all the time for containing magical fields and placing spells on things passing them. Nevermind her previous learning, she could barely keep up with the pace of her teacher’s flurry of information. She was used to making quick notes from her old history teacher. This time, Dawn was pretty sure her pen was smoking by the end of the lesson as she filed her newly made notes away.

She decided to wait for the majority of the class to exit the theatre before making her way out of her corner of the room. Not looking where she was going, Dawn was bumped into by one of the other students and in a cliched manner, she falls flat on her face, scattering her notes all over the ground. She is picked up by the student who knocked her over and her papers sorted themselves out into her saddlebags. “Sorry! I’m so sorry!” The student squeaked, making sure Dawn wasn’t hurt. “Oh, y-you’re Moonlight Dawn... aren’t you?” He asked, a tad awkwardly.

Dawn nodded in answer, fluttering her wings a little and bracing herself for the usual torrent of insults, or something similar. “I’m Cobalt.” He smiled at her and rubbed his horn awkwardly trying to avoid eye contact. “N-nice to meet you!” Dawn was surprised at his niceties and shakily smiled back.

“You-you were nice to me?” She questioned him, almost sure he was going to double cross her. Instead he looked confused and maybe a little hurt. “Sorry, I was expecting you to just make fun of me for not being a unicorn.” Dawn apologised, looking sheepish like a little filly after a scolding.

“W-well… unlike some, I try my best to get on with everypony.” He responded, adjusting his glasses awkwardly. “Especially a cute pegasus mare I just met.” He blushed a little, asking himself over and over again why he just said that to her now tomato red face.

“W-well it was nice meeting you Cobalt!” Dawn panicked as she ducked her head beneath her wing, trying badly, to make it look like she was looking in her bag for something before dashing away, leaving the frustrated stallion alone in the lecture theatre.

“Well… Shit, that’s another pretty mare i’ve successfully ruined my chances with.” Cobalt muttered to nopony in particular, mentally kicking himself for letting another adorable mare slip away because he was too forward. “Good sodding job there Cobalt.”

Cobalt started walking back to the student’s union, trying his best not to look like a recently denied stallion (and failing miserably) checking his blue coat and mane weren’t dirty in the shop windows because that might have offered some explanation to why he had been rejected again. But no, his coat was as spotless as it was when he had left home, Cobalt always made it a point every night to scrub himself down thoroughly so he knew for certain that he was completely sanitary for the day ahead of him.

Cobalt kicked himself mentally again before he strode back into the union building, walking to an unoccupied table near to the corner of Star-Bucks coffee and sat down, slinging his bags across the empty chair. He shyly walked over to the counter and ordered a large frappuccino to drown his sorrows in. Five minutes of the young barista faffing about with the coffee machine and he was presented with a cup of caffeinated, chocolaty goodness which he gently floated back to his table. As he walked away, a parade of bits made their way out of his saddlebag and counted themselves out on the barista’s counter, finally rolling into a neat stack as his magical aurora faded from a brilliant green to nothing.

The beverage didn’t last anywhere near as long as he hoped and he drained the last couple drops from the pristine white cup and set it down, dissatisfied with the largeness of his “large” coffee. He got up to give the cup back to the baristas, it followed him, encased in a magical glow. Cobalt gently set the cup down and thanked the pony serving who quickly scooped the cup up and deposited it into the sink behind her. He received a quick and dismissive thank you before the serveuse moved onto her next customer.

Moving back to his table in the corner, he brought out his laptop computer and hit the spacebar a few times impatiently trying to get it to wake up faster. As the screen lit up, it showed an image that made him smile, him in a selfie with his favorite musician. DJ-Pon3 had been his favorite since he stumbled across the djing unicorn in a Canterlot music shop and she silently signed a CD cover, tossed the twenty bits to the pony at the counter and pressed it into his hoof with a snarky, confident smile. He had gone home that instant and listened to her music all afternoon, downloading a couple of her digital albums too.

By far her best album had been Wake Up and See the World, the one she had given to him without as much as a second thought. He had fallen in love with one of the songs on the label, as far as he had seen the only song without dubstep drumming his ears constantly. The name of the song was, “If I Was To Be” and it was, in Cobalt’s head the best she had produced.

Thinking of this, Cobalt settled down happily into a world of his own, tapped in his password, then clicked his headphones into the jack in his computer and selected random on his playlists. Listening to the intro to one of the more hippy songs Cobalt had downloaded, he opened up a piece of work he hadn’t finished in class and got typing, frantically trying to get the piece finished. He’d need it all done to impress his high expectant parents.

Author's Note

Just to say a great big thank you to my co-writer and editor Ratchet for stopping me from publishing this till it was readable, and considering my last fic was a complete flop that I decided to give up on before it was too late, I am hoping that this one is a little better!

As an aside, if you are expecting some massive backstory about abstracts and Quizzy's life was like before moving to Equestria. That's gonna be in a different story that will include her brother! Yay for Ukedideka! Anyway, that isn't for now.

As another aside, I know the meeting between Dawn and cobalt was a massive cliche "Brad" moment, but can I just inform you in a totally non-spoilery way that Cobalt is not at all a "Brad" character, he is a socially awkward nerd who is a massive goofball, aka, the opposite of "Brad."

Chapter 2 - Dreamwalker

Dawn scampered from the magical studies building like a terrified mouse running from a cat. That odd stallion had really surprised and she was only really used to talking to Legacy as a friend. What that stallion was getting at was a little more than she was ready for. He had definitely been hitting on her. Little Dawn was being hit on!

She panicked internally for a couple moments outside of the student union where she had spent the previous week learning the layout of. Dawn turned round and checked over her shoulder that that Cobalt stallion hadn’t followed her here. He was nowhere to be seen so she tried her best to compose herself before fluttering her wings and pushing the glass doors open.

Walking through, she was landed in the vast atrium, this was the true heart of the college and it showed it. The walls were rimmed all the way round with shops offering nearly everything a student could ever want or need. Cheap stationery, cheap food and coffee shops, but most importantly for Dawn was the small bookshop tucked into the corner where she had spent last week totally socialising with the other students and making a total of zero new friends. Dawn wasn’t a very sociable filly at the best of times, an unfortunate side effect of her bullying in her earlier life for being different. In a huge room chock a block packed with other ponies who already had friends, she didn’t really have anyone to relate to. So as she had the week prior, Dawn made her speedy way to her place of solitude and sighed happily, breathing in the musky scent of second hoof books. Making her way round the shelves, she found her corner, the place Dawn had found and made her own, metaphorically. There was already a small wooden chair in the corner which was surprisingly comfortable and the perfect light for being able to read without the brightness impaling your eyes on a spear of luminescence.

Dawn hesitated a moment before claiming the chair in the corner and pulled her book out of her saddlebag, “On Magic in the Mind and Dreams.” was the tome she was delving into. Princess Twilight Sparkle had written so many books on magic now Dawn’s shelves at home were on the verge of bursting. Most of the books Dawn read were magical text books that she sometimes didn’t completely understand for being a pegasus, not a unicorn, but she does have a guilty pleasure of reading mushy romance novels and books about the Princesses. She especially adored reading about the early life of Princess Luna and all the shenanigans she got up to under the radar before she had her meltdown and was sent swiftly moonward bound.

She slipped down into her book and let the world melt into an indecipherable blur for a few hours, she didn’t have any more lectures today, therefore she was more than happy to will away the day, letting it simply become a flurry of words and phrases. Anatomical and arcane diagrams flew into her mind and were devoured by her endless need for learning.

A few hours later, Dawn was another three thirds through the technical book when she was unceremoniously woken from her learning induced stupor by one of the bookstore’s owners, Pages.

The older mare smiled at Dawn as she hobbled towards her, “We’re closing up shop now dear, better run along ‘less you want us to lock you up in a bookshop.” Pages grinned at Dawn knowingly, her smile making it impossible for Dawn not to giggle at her joke.

“Ok, ok!” Dawn giggled, packing her book away, “I’m going.” Dawn flung her saddlebags over her back again and flapped her wings gently to slide them into the right position. She smiled at the elderly bookshop owner and made her way out of the closing shop.

Before heading home, she stopped in at Buckeroo and attained a cup of hot chocolate with cream to go, which she happily sipped at on the walk. The hot liquid warmed her insides in the cold September’s evening as she started on the walk home. Rounding the corners in Fillydelfia, she worked her way through her drink and tossed the now empty cup into a bin.

It wasn’t long before she found her house and trotted happily up the garden path. Before she could reach out to open the door, it was flung open by an ecstatic Quizzy, her grey fur muffling Dawn’s surprised yelp as she was yanked into a happy hug by her overprotective mother.

“Dawn’s home Ratchet!” She cried inside and a crash was heard in reply from the workshop, quickly followed by a string of choice language from Dawn’s father.

Dawn managed to pull herself free of Quizzy’s embrace before she was smothered and nuzzled her mother’s cheek lovingly. “Hey mum, how was your day?” Dawn asked, walking past her mother and depositing her bags on the kitchen table on her way past.

“Tiring and annoying and not done yet.” Her mother complained, indicating to go into the living room, “Tell me how your first actual day at college went.”

Quizzy took the armchair and lay down, gazing at Dawn expectantly as she claimed the sofa. “Well, it went well, the teacher stopped the other unicorns from being racist, which I was prepared for, ya know, being a pegasus and all in an advanced magical studies class.” Dawn begun, then caught herself before she explained what had happened between her and that odd Cobalt stallion. “Besides that it was pretty normal, after the initial lecture, I just sat about in the union and read all afternoon, I have nearly finished On Magic in the Mind and Dreams now.” Dawn smiled, hoping her mother hadn’t picked up on her encounter. This hope was quickly crushed by her mother’s overwhelming curiosity and ability to read minds.

“What about the stallion Dawn?” She asked, making dawn look down in irritation, she and Ratchet had an agreement with Quizzy of no mind-reading at all unless it was absolutely necessary. Quizzy frequently forgot about their contract and Dawn couldn’t blame her. Quizzy had been born and raised in a society where delving into someone else’s memories was a normal thing, and she really hadn’t been in Equestria for very long.

“Don’t want to talk about it, get out of my head mum.” Dawn said angrily and Quizzy immediately apologised profusely, having definitely forgotten their parle about spending time sifting through Dawn and Ratchet’s memories.

“Well, big Uni girl is home!” Came Ratchet’s voice from the door, the large stallion’s grey coat stained badly by motor oil and what looked like wiper fluid. “Lemme shower and I will be back, get ready to tell me everything about it Dawn!” He said before stomping upstairs and the sound of running water was heard from the shower.

Dawn opened her mouth to ask Quizzy what her dad was building this time, but she was interrupted by a chirp from her mobile. Picking it up, she read the message on the screen. “Saw u hiding in the corner agn 2day, need 2 tlk?” Read the message from Legacy. Dawn quickly tapped out nah, just wanted some peace and quiet to read, thanks for the thought tho and sent it to her, receiving a short message of acknowledgement from her friend.

Ten minutes later, her father reappeared and Dawn recounted the day for the second time, again missing out the part about her run-in with Cobalt. Ratchet looked shocked about how the other students had spoken to her before the teacher had stepped in and had vowed to complain before Dawn talked him down from calling the school there and then by telling him how the professor, Crimson Spark had yelled at the crowd that she was the highest achieving magical sciences student on her course.

As Ratchet and Dawn were chatting on about their days, Quizzy had some time for herself to cook and think of how her day had been. She was a Gate officer and an abstract Guardian at the same time. The two jobs sorta fell hoof on hoof. Being a Guardian was the assignment given to her by the black mark across her left eye, it looked like somepony had took a wide paintbrush and slashed the small mare across the eye with it. In Abstract culture, this mark, or, “sigil” is it is formally known as is reminiscent of a cutiemark, as in, it dictates what your job will be. The crescent shaped mark is that of the Guardians. Being the gate officer was just as exciting as the regular duties of a Guardian, she got to stand outside of a tear in space, waiting for something exciting to happen. The area around said tear is considered neutral ground by interdimensional beings so Equestria is generally where diplomatic deals are made with Quizzy and her team of other officers oversaw the process and protected the dignitaries.

Today had been the start of diplomatic talks between a couple interdimensional races whose names Quizzy could never hope to pronounce. There had already been eight assassination attempts today and the team had been working in shifts, going home to rest between worktimes. After she had eaten, Quizzy would have to head out till the next shift change or the diplomats finally came to a decision without pulling out a pistol. In all honesty Quizzy sorta wanted one of the diplomats ended up dead so she wouldn’t have to go back to work, but she didn’t know the full extent of what the odd spacy creatures were discussing, for all she knew, Quizzy could be witness to a group of diplomats discussing a peace treaty after a millennium of war.

She wasn’t really paying attention to what she was doing as she assembled some sandwiches for Dawn and Ratchet and she ended up nearly buttering her hooves as her thoughts flitted about her mind about the diplomatic process she was overseeing. She was just glad that it wasn’t other Abstracts that had caused this dispute, the amount of times she has had to pull former colleagues off dignitaries was getting to her. Because of how dangerous riled up Abstracts could be, Quizzy was the only one brave enough in her team to take one on. Considering that her prior life was spent almost exclusively either standing in a hall looking less important than someone else or at war with some poor race so one of the Lords could feel good about themselves.

Quizzy’s brother, Ukedideka hadn’t had opportunity to leave their homeland, ending up in prison for being involved with some less than legal activities. He was a member of another elite sect of Abstract society, he was one of the mysterious infiltrators; assassins and saboteurs all of them. He had escaped from prison quickly enough and had begun to lay low instead of attempting a runner to another dimension. If he did, her brother would end up being too easily tracked, then ran into the ground like a fox during season.

Quizzy shook her head to clear her thoughts, she didn’t like thinking about her brother and how much she missed him. Dawn had met her uncle once, maybe fourteen years ago, not in person. Ukedideka had found a method of transmitting a message trans dimensions, unfortunately this was a massive red flag for the Abstract police and he had to leave. Dawn seemed to adore him and his oddities anyway. Sighing from looking back to past long gone, Quizzy put on a brave face and walked back into the main room with the sandwiches and tossed them at her husband and daughter who caught and chowed down on them gratefully.

Dawn liked her mother’s cooking, even if it was only a sandwich. Quizzy always found a way of making it just that little bit nicer. Adding a little salt and pepper to the bread, cutting the slices thick or making her own mayonnaise. Ratchet liked them too, but his opinion doesn’t matter because Dawn is the main character.

--==========================--

After they had eaten, Quizzy got changed into her uniform and slipped quietly out into the dark to continue her shift. Ratchet mumbled something to do with motor oil and a blender, kissed Dawn’s forehead and headed for the workshop. Left with little else to do, Dawn turned to her mobile phone, texting Legacy a couple times but not getting any reply. No reply from Legacy meant she was either asleep or dead, more likely asleep considering she was seventeen and perfectly healthy.

Dawn still wanted companionship from her bestie, so she settled down on the sofa and propped her head up on some of the cushions. Dawn let her eyes draw heavy and slowly close like curtains at the finale of a great performance, before she knew it, Dawn was asleep and in her own lifeless dream. As with most dreamwalkers, her dreams started out as a barren white plane with a small door barely visible in the far off distance. Dawn sat down and stared at the door, willing it to come closer, then it sorta just, was. Dawn had no clue how that bit of dreamwalking worked, and just knew that it did, she wanted the door to be closer so it came closer… there was just no in between the door being far away, and it being right up in her face.

She quickly opened the door and stepped through into the starry abyss of the dreamscape. Small bubbles floated around her, all of them containing the dreams of the sleeping ponies of equestria. Dawn could see some of them popping as ponies woke up and some seemingly appearing out of nowhere as the pony fell into a dreamy sleep. She walked through the archive of dreams, watching some of the bubbles playing little snippets of what was going through the minds of all the dreaming ponies on their glossy surface. Searching for a little while yielded the best of results, Legacy was asleep and having a happy dream about skipping through a meadow. Dawn reached out and touched the bubble with a hoof and the darkness flashed brilliant white for a moment, forcing her to shut her eyes against the sudden bombardment of bright light.

A moment later, Dawn could open her eyes again and found herself on a grassy hill. The smell of flowers drifted to her quickly and she sighed, happy that her friend had a world like this inside her. Happy giggles were springing from the other side of the hill which could only really mean one thing. Dawn trotted up the hill and peered down at her happy friend who was playing with a bountiful bunch of bunnies. Dawn put on an elated grin and sprung down to Legacy as if she were a part of the dream. From previous experience, she had found it best not to startle somepony when you enter their dreams, it can make them wake up which always landed Dawn with a headache like somepony had used her head like a drum.

Legacy noticed Dawn’s presence and turned around, clutching possibly the most adorable rabbit Dawn had ever seen. Said bunny had fallen asleep in Lecacy’s gentle hooves and had snuggled against her fur like a child would it’s mother. Dawn couldn’t help but coo at the intoxicating cuteness she was befallen with witnessing.

Few words were exchanged at first as Dawn came to sit next to her best friend. Legacy simply cradled the rabbit before turning to Dawn. “You brain Dawny or real Dawny?” She asked, stroking the bunny’s long silky ears.

“Real Dawny.” Dawn cooed, staring at the cute scene in front of her.

Legacy giggled at Dawn’s face then gently gave her the rabbit as not to wake it up. Dawn let out a little, “Squee!” of excitement at getting to hold such an adorable creature and cradled it just as Legacy had before.

“So, what brings you into the land of Legacy this time Dawn?” Legacy smiled at Dawn''s one-off ovation with the bunny. “Wanna talk about you hiding in the corner again?” She joked.

“No. I wasn’t hiding, I was reading.” Dawn answered dismissively. “I do want to talk about something though.”

“Go on then Dawn, spill.” Legacy sat down on the pillow that manifested beneath her.

Dawn hesitated and blushed a little. “After Magic class today, there was a weird stallion, about your age that obviously wanted a piece of Dawn.” She confessed to Legacy, handing back the rabbit as if it were a precious gem.

“Considering I know anyone who is anyone in college. Tell me what his name was and maybe the colour of his coat and I’ll see if I can get you two hitched.” Legacy said, misunderstanding Dawn completely.

“Hey! I don’t want to get with the stallion, I guess I just want to know a little more about him.” Dawn shrugged, kind of annoyed that whenever she mentioned a stallion to Legacy, her friends first reaction was to attempt to get Dawn into a relationship.

“Well… I can see if I can tell you a little about Mr… stallion.” Legacy said, raising a hoof defensively to her chest.

“Cobalt, and his coat was light blue.” Dawn answered, waving a hoof and sitting down on a comfy pillow next to her friend.

“Cobalt Daust?” Legacy repeated, “Wears glasses that are a little too big, odd spell circle with a bottle in it for a cutiemark?”

Legacy knew him, how the hell did Legacy know who this odd, awkward stallion was?

“Yeah. That sounds about right.” Dawn answered, still confused by Legacy’s seemingly unfathomable knowledge about the pupils in school.

“Well, Cobalt’s Dad, Spell Circle, is one of the lead professors at PCS (Princess Celestia’s school for Gifted Colts and Fillies) and is a lead researcher into arcane circles and self repair of said circles.” Legacy answered, leaving Dawn flabbergasted. Seeing Dawn’s shocked expression and guessing (correctly) that her own knowledge was its cause, she squeaked a small, “What?”

Dawn squeaked, Cobalt’s dad was one of the lead researchers into Arcane circle complexes and mecha-arcanum structures. Essentially one of Dawn’s favorite scientists, and she just met and denied his son.

“Nothing, nothing!” Dawn reassured herself more than she did Legacy, who shrugged and went back to tickling the belly of the now happily awake bunny. Dawn’s cheeks were burning bright red.

After chatting for a few hours about their courses and what they’d be doing with their time, Legacy had persuaded Dawn to finally go out and try to make another friend. Of course Legacy would do her best to help, but Dawn would have to make the commitment of a friendship outside of Legacy.

By the time they were finished talking, it was midnight and Dawn wasn’t resting while in somepony else’s dream. The pair wished each other fond farewells and hugged before Dawn closed her eyes and willed the door back to the dreamscape closer to her. She waved to Legacy before stepping back into the endless abyss of the dreamscape. After a few moments of searching, she found her own dream and touched the bubble, the bright flash forcing her eyes closed for a second time before she ended up stumbling around, blinded by her blank mindscape inviting Dawn to build castles and kingdoms. She lay down in the middle and let her dream begin.

--==========================--

A few hours later, Dawn awoke with an uncomfortable start, her wing had become stuck down the back of the sofa and she had rolled onto her other side, pulling out one of the feathers with a sharp needle of pain. She looked at the offending appendage with disdain before smoothing down her feathers and wobbling to her sleepy legs. It was five in the morning and Dawn didn’t have to be awake till eight, therefore the young pegasus decided best course of reaction would be to drag her heavy body upstairs and clamber into her warm bed, so she did.

Dawn grabbed her feather comb from her bedside table and she slid under the covers. She ran the comb across where the feather was pulled out earlier to sort them into some sort of order. Dawn closed her eyes again and allowed her dreamy abyss to take her again for the second time in so many hours.

--==========================--

She woke after what felt like thirty seconds of uncomfortable sleep and yawned, stretching her lean wings high above her head. She heard a satisfying pop from her joints and sighed. The clock said it was ten to eight in the morning. She had twenty minutes before she had to get out of the house so would not be able to satiate her desire to remain bedridden.

Groaning, she managed to drag herself out of the warm embrace of her duvet and shake out her fur.

She checked her wings over and corrected the couple rogue feathers that had the audacity to be out of place. Then she made the grave mistake of walking over to the mirror. Her mane was in shambles, sticking out at random angles and tattered as if she had just been dragged through a hedge backwards. Dawn sighed, knowing that if she was going have any way of wrangling her mane, it would probably mean not having a good breakfast. In any case, she made an effort to wrestle her mane into some semblance of sense in front of her mirror. In this act, she noticed her tail was not much better so decided to declare all-out war on her mane.

She started the shower and left it to warm up, going downstairs to put some toast on. Her father was already up and about, putting what looked like it used to be a blender back together after one of his moments. Ratchet looked up at his exhausted daughter and offered a small smile and an offer of burnt toast. Dawn politely declined his singed sacrifice and instead put her own toast on to brown. Downing a glass of orange juice, she made her way back upstairs and stepped into the steaming shower. The hot water came as a shock at first, dousing her coat, mane and tail, unfortunately washing out some of the grey dye that she had in. She would have to top that up too before she left. Her mane gave up resisting as she worked shampoo into it and eventually Dawn had control over her tail too. She washed her face and under her wings too before stepping out and wrapping herself in a fluffy towel, using one corner to rub at her wings furiously.

After she had rubbed herself down with the towel, Dawn was less waterlogged and happier with the behaviour of her mane and tail. She made her way downstairs where Ratchet had spread a hearty amount of marmalade over Dawn’s toast.

Crunching happily away at the bemarmaladed toast, Dawn watched her father working to reassemble the blender, he screwed the rotors into each other and gently placed the blades on top, giving it a small spin to see if it worked. When he got the motor system working, he placed it back in the case and wrapped some of the coppery wires around one of the conduits. By the time Dawn had finished the toast, Ratchet had managed to reassemble the appliance and make a smoothie out of half the fruit bowl.

Dawn went back upstairs to grab her saddlebags, tossing them over her back before fastening them to her back and wriggling till they fit snugly below her wings. She brushed her mane and touched the dye on her coat up where her purple coat was showing through her normal grey and checked herself in the mirror. Nothing was wrong, she looked great and she felt kinda crap, her head was pounding with a terrible headache caused by her bad sleep the night before.

Author's Note

As an aside, this chapter wasn't written overnight between the second and the third, as of the time of publishing this chapter, I have the next two chapters ready for proper editing and I will have them up on here as soon as my ever present editor, Ratchet is done picking them to pieces and reassembling my bad writing into something readable.

Again! Happy reading!

Chapter 3 - Run ins

Dawn was bored, one of her professors, this one called Chalkboard was officially one of the most boring ponies in Equestria and Dawn would have him shot. He would then be taught how to properly teach her students the fundamental shapes that the students are required to know if she was going to continue her studies into mecha-archanum structures.
Dawn already knew all the shapes and was bored, doodling some of the more complex ones in the margin of her notepad, then starting some of the work she had been given that morning. She had the long essay done to top notch standards before yawning and lying her head down on her folded hooves and staring blankly at her droning professor.
He continued boring Dawn senseless till her eyes began to feel heavy, and well she hadn’t exactly slept the best the night before, she had sorta been awake in the early hours and messed up her wing. She already knew everything she was gonna learn in this lesson, what’s wrong with five minutes of shuteye to try and catch up on what precious sleep she missed last night.

“NO!” She mentally kicked herself for thinking she could just sleep through classes. But she was tired and would feel great afterwards, maybe her headache would go away.

“No Dawn, no sleeping, you know it’d be unacceptable and your mother would wring your neck.” She whispered to herself, but the mention of the word ‘sleeping’ only made her eyes sag lower, like a set of weights were being tied to her eyelashes. “But sleep would be great and you could feel great and catch up on last night.” the little devil on her shoulder chittered into Dawn’s ear.

And with that, she was gone, her eyes sliding shut like a set of bars on a cell. The key was turned and tossed away, Dawn was left in her drab, perfectly white dreamscape, with the little white door way off in the distance. She eyed the door for a few moments, being that she didn’t sleep much during the day, she didn’t much visit the dream world during the waking hours either.

Dawn wondered if there’d be any interesting ponies sleeping right now, and there were always ponies asleep, and that curiosity started drawing that little door ever closer to where Dawn was sitting. Before she knew it, and definitely before she could stop herself, Dawn had her hoof on the handle and was pushing the door open.

The dreamscape on the other side was smaller, understandably, there were less ponies asleep during the day than at night. The vast starry place looked the same as it had the night before, still full of bubbles showing small clips of what was going on in the heads of the dreaming ponies. Dawn started looking through the snippets of events, occasionally willing one nearer to her so she could get a better look inside the dream. It wasn’t long before she found one she was interested in, she had found somepony having a nightmare. Dawn sat there for a few moments, watching the frightened mare struggle down a dark hallway, something chasing her relentlessly.

Dawn saw her panic stricken face and could feel her sheer terror emanating from the gently pulsing bubble. She didn’t want to do nothing about her nightmare, but at the same time it could be caused by something that wasn’t her own mind? Dawn started to panic, then the mare shrieked and stumbled over inside the disconcerting maze, so Dawn jumped and pressed her hoof to the orb and the whole world went white.

The next second, Dawn found herself opening a door into the pitch black maze. The terrified mare ran straight into her and screamed. Dawn just grabbed the squirming mare by the hoof and yanked her into the room where a drippy candle in the corner provided the faintest speck of light. The mare battled Dawn, hard, landing a few hard blows to her chest. Dawn was used to such reactions when she entered someponies nightmare, but not with such ferocity.

Coughing from the flurry of kicks she had received, Dawn managed to choke out a short sentence, “I’m trying to… help.” She shook her head and rubbed gently where the mare had landed a particularly strong blow. You couldn’t be easily injured in the dreamscape... Unless what hurt you wasn't meant to be there.

The mare didn’t look like she was prepared to listen as her rapid backing away from Dawn pressed her against the shadowed wall like a terrified filly. Eventually, after some coaxing, Dawn had managed to make the mare pull her terrified self together. Dawn learned that her name was Roses, she was the mother of a colt named Thorns and her husband had left her, she was a florist that had just spent nearly twenty four hours diligently working on the bouquets and flower arrangements for a wedding. Dawn had managed to convince her that she was a part of her subconscious, as she did with most ponies who’s dreams she invaded, and was here to help her in the nightmare.

“S-so… do you know why this is happening?” Roses stammered, her fearful eyes like pinpricks in the faint candlelight. “Or is it just my brain trying to scare me again?”

Dawn shook her head mechanically. “We don’t know why you are having a nightmare. It could be due to a lack of sleep or stress.” She answered the shaking mare. “It is also possible considering the nature of the nightmare that you are subject to a mental attack of some description, unfortunately, your subconscious is too busy dealing with your terror to try and find out the nature.”

Dawn had been in the company of ponies having nightmares before, and she had been in a dream infested with a dream-monster before, Dawn had quickly left and escaped just as some of her heroes lept into the dream, swords drawn and jaws set. She watched as Princess Luna’s Dreamguard took back the dream from the unwelcome invader. Dawn just hoped that she wouldn’t have to witness that sort of event again, it was most violent.

Then there was a bang on the door and Roses squealed and hid behind Dawn, hoping beyond hope that she would offer some sort of protection, even though the pink unicorn could probably do more damage than Dawn and her pegasus...ness. The door was hit again, harder and it quivered like a shaken branch in the rusted frame. Dawn smiled back at Roses and gulped, not knowing at all what you would would eventually peel that door away from its frame like one would peel an orange.

Within seconds, the door was reverberating with whatever it was on the other side pounding hard on the straining metal. ‘BANG’ the door was hit again and buckled a tiny bit, a dent forming in the middle from the monster’s ferocious blows. Roses tucked herself into a tiny ball, quivering about as much as the door. Dawn spread her wings out a little, doing her best to seem big and not show how scared she was.

The door shook harder again and the corner was pushed forward to reveal the darkness outside. Roses squeaked and shook harder, she was moments away from breaking out into a fit of hysteria. Dawn stood her failing ground, trying her hardest not to give up on what little mental strength she had left. The door wasn’t going to last much longer before it gave in. It was pounded again and buckled in, revealing more darkness behind the door. Dawn instinctively flinched and stepped back, almost standing on Roses’ trembling tail. There didn’t seem to be anything behind the door that could cause so much devastation. Then the door stopped shaking for a few moments and deathly silence reigned over the room.

The quiet was harshly broken for a few moments by the sound of teeth grinding together and gnashing. The door was suddenly assaulted by a barrage of bangs and smashing sounds before it finally gave way to reveal nothing but darkness on the other side. Roses shrieked with terror and backed up against the wall furthest away from the now door-less frame. Dawn wasn’t faring much better herself, the door nearly struck her when it was smashed out of its frame. Shaken to her hooves, Dawn tried her best to stand her ground as the darkness crept into the room, the candle flickering as if it was going to go out.

Then it smiled. The darkness actually smiled! Dawn shook as her pupils constricted in terror. The dark gnashed its teeth and ground them together as if it had something trapped between its massive molars. Dawn was shaking in fear, still trying to do her best to stand up to the sweeping darkness before it hesitated. Leaving it’s terrifying maw agape it started backing out of the room, grinning deviously.

Dawn had no clue what to expect as the darkness seeped from the room and was replaced by a small warm light, the candle burning suddenly brighter, Roses stopped crying so much and came back down off the ceiling. Dawn peeked round the corner to see the darkness monster being surrounded by a group of stoic looking, sword wielding ponies. The Dreamguard! Dawn nearly fainted then and there.

After they had encircled the… thing, they sprang into action and leapt at the beast, slashing down with their identical short swords. The monster reeling and backing away from them, it’s mocking grin never once slipping from its invisible face. It didn’t attempt to fight back as the group of pony soldiers slew the beast and it dissipated into the abyss.

Some of the ponies sheathed their swords and started scouring the dream for the dreamer, Roses. Then two of them spotted Dawn and scowled. Knowing her hiding spot was done for, Dawn did the responsible thing and hung her head, coming out of the desiccated door frame. “The Dreamer is in there.” Dawn said to the two older ponies, who continued to look displeased with her. One of them motioned for her to follow her before the other walked into the room and tried to coax the terrified pony in there out.

Dawn walked sheepishly after the Dreamguard, holding her head low in shame at being caught by them. “Tell me Missy, why you thought that dealing with this mess was your business?” He growled at her, shaking his mane in annoyance.

“I-I thought it was just a bad dream, not something caused by a dream monster.” Dawn stammered, unable to meet his eye.

“Well it wasn’t ‘just a bad dream’ it never is. Especially in this case. Dreamwalker.” He growled and took off his helmet, showing a rather handsome dark green stallion with a dark red mane. “Bruxi are dangerous, if you knew anything before
flinging yourself into this sort of situation, you wouldn’t end up in such a mess!” He rubbed his forehead with a hoof.

He slotted his helmet back over his horn and shook his head disapprovingly at Dawn before he lit his horn up with a white light and the door back to the dreamscape appeared suddenly in the wall of Roses’ dream. “Scarper before I report you to the commander.” He gave her a small knowing smile and pushed the door open.

“Um… thank you sir!” Dawn stammered and trotted through the door, surprised by the guard’s display of compassion. Dawn was tossed forcefully from the dream and quickly scampered back to her own dream, waking up with a start as the teacher was still raving about circles and the shapes one could include inside them. Dawn glanced at the clock and groaned, hiding her head under her hooves. She had managed to snatch about fifteen minutes of shut eye that overall had just amplified her pounding headache.

--==========================--
After a bit of hunting, Dawn managed to find Legacy sitting in a cafe, sipping from one of their steaming cups of coffee.

“What are you doing?” Dawn groaned into her plate, she was sitting across from Legacy who was painting an intricate design on her forehoof. She was still sleep deprived and scared that the dreamguard might do something after they caught her in somepony’s nightmare infested dream. This had been her second run in with the guardsponies ever, she was terrified when she first ran into them. She was about nine years old when she found out that she could dreamwalk and earned her cutiemark. She was nine when she had learned how to do it properly and it wasn’t long before she found out she could walk between dreams. She had found one that seemed interesting and unknowingly walked in on a nightmare. The guards had shown up soon afterwards to make sure it wasn’t any dream monster causing the terror. Instead it had just been a terrifying dream that the poor pony was locked in.

The guards had helped her out of the dream and after a scolding about respecting privacy and staying away from nightmares, sent her on her way and kicked her back into her own dream. Of course nine year old Dawn ignored the commands and kept on exploring the minds of others, her natural curiosity driving her to new levels of understanding.
Legacy showed Dawn her intricately painted hoof and smiled, “You like it?” She asked, beaming. “It’s a new trend that we were talking about in fashion and textiles.”

“It’s great!” Dawn cooed at her friend’s artistic talent, trying to gloss over the fact she looked like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards.

“Want me to do one on your hoof?” Legacy offered, floating the paintbrush closer, Dawn nodded and placed her hoof on the table, in view of Legacy and her paintbrush.

A few minutes and intricate brushstrokes later, Dawn had a brilliantly detailed floral pattern painted across her forehoof. Dawn had giggled while Legacy was working, discovering that her hooves were actually rather ticklish and making it rather hard to keep still. Legacy had had to pin her hoof down with her foreleg so she wouldn’t wreck the delicate paint before it was given opportunity to dry.

“It’s so pretty!” Dawn cooed happily after she had stifled her tickle induced giggles. Legacy had painted a canopy of flowers and grass stems on Dawn’s hoof with a dark green paint.

“The unicorns are being taught a waterproofing spell for paints like that next lesson… which is tomorrow, so try not to wreck it tonight.” Legacy ordered her, washing the paint brush in a small pot of greyish water and putting the lids back on her paints. The art utensils were floated in an orderly line into Legacy’s saddlebags before she took a long sip from her trendy coffee.

“I will try my hardest not to spoil it Legacy.” Dawn said, studying the intricate lines her friend had painted on her hoof.
“Just… Make sure not to get it wet Dawn, because I am not going to do another one having seen you wriggling.” Legacy groaned sarcastically and Dawn nodded enthusiastically in reply, still admiring her friend's talent.

The pair chattered for a while before Legacy had to take her leave to go to her lecture. On the other hoof, Dawn sat around in the café a while longer, ruminating on her encounter with the Dreamguard and hoping she hadn’t missed anything she would need in those fleeting minutes she had been asleep. After a while of deliberating with herself, she came to the decision that she would go and find another one of her classmates just to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.
Making sure she hadn’t left anything, Dawn slung her saddlebags over her back and wriggled so they settled on her haunches before beginning her hunt for another of her… hopefully not racist classmates.

As she began walking, she came to the realisation that she didn’t know any of the other students in her class besides the unicorn who had made fun of her the day before and that admittedly rather cute stallion Cobalt that had been unexpectedly hitting on her. “No. Not him, ugh, only if I am desperate.” She told herself, rubbing her still aching temple with a forehoof and continuing on her way.

Author's Note

Still, a massive thank you to my editor and co-writer Ratchet for stopping me from publishing this till it was readable. I wouldn't be able to put this out without his input.

Again, Happy reading!

Chapter 4 - Leeway

“Ew, no! Why’d I help you?” The taller unicorn sneered at Dawn, much to the amusement of her small group of friends, “Go take a weather class like a proper pegasus.” She laughed harshly at Dawn’s shocked and upset face before walking off with her pack of horned buddies.
“Such help you are, featherbrain.” Dawn grumbled in the direction of the mean unicorn, doing her best not to jump on her and pull her ears off. Growling under her breath, Dawn turned away from the third peer of herself that had refused to help her.
It had been two hours at least since she had last spoken to Legacy, this needed to be rectified quickly before she stomped on the next unicorn that looked at her funny. Dialing her bestie’s number, Dawn listened to the dial tone go off a couple times before hearing Legacy’s squeaky voice, “Hey there pegasister, wassup?” Dawn balked at the petname.
“Eh, it’s been better.” Dawn groaned, sliding into a seat in the café she was by. “Trying to get some help on the bit of class I… Slept through today.”
Legacy giggled and tutted, “Naughty naughty Dawny, sleeping in class isn’t very astute now is it?”
“Way to make me feel better Legacy, thanks.” Dawn said sarcastically.
“Hey, I don’t know your exact mental state right now, I can’t tell from your voice alone now, can I?” Legacy said defensibly. “Hey maybe I can give you a helping hoof?”
“With mecha-archanum structures and the shapes required to form them?” Dawn asked tentatively.
There was a brief pause from her excitable friend. “Um… Maybe you better go and find someone that knows that you needed shapes in the first place?” Legacy sounded almost embarrassed.
“Apparently not then.” Dawn sighed and rubbed her temple with an outstretched wing. “You wouldn’t happen to know any not racist unicorns taking my class?”
“Well, yes, of course I do… I know a couple that might like pegasi.” Legacy answered tentatively. “I’m not so sure you’d like who I am thinking of though.” She warned.
Dawn sighed, already knowing one of the names that Legacy was about to list. “Hit me, come on Legacy.”
“Ok, Ok! Jeez. Well there’s Lumen… she’s odd though. Walker’s nice, but I don’t know much about him. And there’s the one I’m not sure you’d be so fond of, Cobalt Dust.”
That name was the one Dawn had been afraid of. “Just send me his details, may as well put the poor stallion out of his misery.” Legacy giggled at Dawn’s snarky remark.
“Will do, Pegasister!” Legacy chirped happily, “I’ll do that as soon as you hang up. Is there anything else you wanna chat about or have I served my purpose?”
“No, there’s nothing else, your purpose is complete, minion.” Dawn giggled, waving her hoof regally. Legacy giggled back before wishing her friend a goodbye and hanging up the phone. About a minute later, Dawn received every contact detail she could have thought about and more from Legacy. Dawn tapped the phone number into her contacts and set a reminder to tell her to “Call Cobalt Dust before going to bed.”
Dawn didn’t have a pictochat account and wasn’t planning on getting one so she ignored that one, on the other hoof, she did have a facehoof page where she posted about science and books, so she gave ‘C.Dust’ a follow.

After a while of drinking hot chocolate and reading about magical circles, Dawn decided the best course of action would be to just make her way home. It was nearing five PM after all. She packed up her troubles and started out of the grounds to the college, making her swift way home. That paper wasn’t going to write itself.

--==========================--

Quizzy wasn’t home when Dawn arrived, Ratchet was nowhere to be seen either, but the occasional metallic bang and curse word from her father's workshop told Dawn all she needed to know.

Dawn poked her head into the workshop and greeted her father who waved at her with a wing from underneath some sort of automobile and mumbled a greeting around a wrench. With that out of the way, Dawn made her way to the kitchen where she purloined an apple and a bag of something too sugary to be good for you and heading upstairs to start on her paper.

“Okay, this is gonna be my first proper assignment for college, better make it the best I can. I want to prove to those pesky unicorns that I’m not ’lost’.” Dawn said to herself, psyching herself up and stretching her hooves above her head before sitting down at her desk and hitting the spacebar on her keyboard to wake up her computer. It eventually gave a whir of its fans and lit up. She tapped in her password and waited for the computer to let her in. Eventually, it played a happy little jingle and the desktop popped onto screen.

Dawn opened her word processor and started to work, furiously tapping on the keys. Eventually, after a good two hours of working, Dawn had a piece that had surpassed the minimum word count after the first half an hour. She read it through a couple times and corrected her admittedly bad grammar on a couple occasions. Then hit print and lay back in her chair while her printer coughed and spat out her paper.

Dawn now had nothing to do, she had finished her book earlier and didn’t really feel like starting another one just yet. Instead she just capsized on her bed and played with her phone a while. She eventually got around to changing her old, crap ringtone to a newer jazzier one. After about half an hour of this, Dawn got bored and tossed her mobile onto her desk and hugged a pillow, pretending it was a handsome, strong stallion that was squeezing little Dawny tight, protecting her from all the monsters while she slept, and she nearly did fall asleep in this little fantasy before a little chirp sounded from her desk and a synthetic voice read out, “You have a reminder for eight pm. Call Cobalt Dust before going to bed.”

“Ugh, alright then.” Dawn moaned, just wanting this to be over with. She dragged herself away from her warm, comfy bed and plonked herself down at her cold, uninviting desk, her phone seeming to stare at her like a tiger.

Before she could talk herself out of calling the wierd stallion, Dawn just did it, putting the device on speaker and listening to the dial tone go off once, twice, three times. Then it was picked up, “Hello? Cobalt Dust speaking, who is this?” The voice on the other end of the line asked.

“U-Um… It’s Dawn, you know, that Pegasus from class.” Dawn answered him tenatively.

“Oh! Um… I’m really really sorry about how I acted yesterday… I really put you in an awkward position.” He apologised, sounding genuinely sorry.

“Listen C-Cobalt, I don’t want to talk about that. I’d rather we just forgot that ever happened and just got on with each other.” Dawn told him, getting out her notebook and pen. “Just forget about it, alright?”

Cobalt hesitated, then perked up, “Ok, water under the bridge. And if you aren't calling me to complain about me, why are you calling me, and a better question, how do you know my number?”

“Legacy gave your number to me… and I-I need some help with some of the work today.” Dawn whimpered quietly, “I… wasn’t really paying too much attention during class today and I’m pretty sure I missed something I might need. Nopony else seems nice enough to help a pegasus out, soooo…” Dawn sighed, then wrote the date on the top of the page, “I thought I’d turn to the one pony I knew would probably help me out.”

“Um, alright then. Well you didn’t really miss much that wasn’t covered before college, there weren’t any new glyphs, just a couple new orientations.” Cobalt started, Dawn could hear him fiddling with pieces of paper through the phone. “Aha! Ok, there’s a couple new orientations, as I said. Ok, well the Hyre glyph can be vertical or at thirty degrees, Nocht can be at fourty or fifty two, but only if you are trying to make a cloudwalking circle with the baast glyph in the fifth position.” Cobalt continued rambling about glyphs and shapes and certain orientations of the specific shapes while Dawn took speedy notes on them.

After a while of discussing their college work, Dawn and Cobalt began chatting about their classes, then their lives at home. And admittedly, Dawn began to take a little bit of interest in this admittedly rather nice stallion she had met.

“So, want to chat again some time?” Cobalt asked.

Dawn hesitated, “Um… sure, m-maybe some other time.” She said slowly after a couple moments. “Um, Bye.” Dawn said probably a little too quickly and hung up the phone.

“Dear Celestia” Dawn breathed, her heart rate slowly returning to normal, “That was probably the most stressful thing I have ever done.”

Dawn plugged her phone in and left it to charge before crawling back under the covers and cuddling her pillow again. “Why can’t I seem to talk to ponies?” She murmured into the bedding and pressed herself against it harder.

An hour later and Dawn was sound asleep, trotting happily round in her luscious dreamscape, her head held high. She felt confident, like the Queen of dreams. Dawn walked through the calm forest, feeling the perfect breeze ruffle her feathers gently and ripple across her soft coat. Dawn was happy here, not having to constantly worry about what everyone felt of her and what she looked like, here she wore her true colours happily, letting the whole forest in to see her deep orchid coat. At home her coat was different, both her parents wore dark grey coats, but here it was Dawn’s badge of honour.

Dawn kept skipping happily, jumping over fallen trees and small patches of braken on her little forested path. She didn’t have anywhere to go so she was just out to have a walk, she breathed in the damp, mellow scent of the forest and smiled. She closed her eyes and slowed down to a calm pacing to listen to the different sounds of the forest, she could hear birds chattering in the trees, leaves rustling and the occasional creak of an old branch in the gentle breeze. Mice and other critters flitted around the forest floor, rummaging for food and playing in the sunbeams.

Opening her eyes, Dawn continued on her way, leaping gracefully over a small stream in her path, fluttering her wings to keep her airborne a moment longer. She landed safely on the other side like a cat and kept on her peaceful stroll a while longer.

Before long, Dawn came out of the forest and into the sunshine, stretching far in front of her was a grassy plane where you could just be free. She stepped out from under the cover of the canopy and felt the sun hit her back with a wondrous warmth, the light reflecting off her shiny coat and making her feathers feel amazing. Dawn closed her eyes and raised her head, trying to get as much sunshine as possible, spreading her wings out and shaking her feathers to catch as many of the warming rays as she possibly could.

After spending an eternity standing there, still as a statue, Dawn opened her eyes and grinned. She folded in her wings and started walking forward, quickly her walk broke off into a free trot, then a small canter as she crested a hill. On the way down she started picking up speed, dipping her head down till she felt like she was running faster than the wind. Dawn was galloping freely among the hills, pounding her hooves against the perfect grass and sprinting for all she was worth, here she could do anything she wanted to, because here nopony could watch her.\

After what felt like forever of free running round the sunny plain, Dawn lay down like an exhausted puppy, sweat pouring off her hide in a great deluge. She was happy, having not run like that in years, Dawn didn’t dream that often, preferring to jump into somepony else’s dream instead of staying in her own.

Suddenly a brilliant light filled her vision and willed her back to the waking worldher eyes and groaned, light was flooding through her window and bathing her face in a pale morning glow. Her mobile was buzzing on the table like an irritated bee, Dawn stretched her body out and hit snooze on her alarm with a lazy hoof. After about ten minutes of drowsiness and not wanting to get out of bed, Dawn managed to crawl from under her blanket and onto her hooves where she stretched again and spread her wings.

“Uuuugh why?” Dawn groaned when she looked in the mirror and noticed her chest was purple, her natural colour. Quickly, she began dabbing more of the oily dye onto her soft coat, rubbing the grey paste into her fur. She checked it covered the purple patch before going and stepping into the shower, washing the excess dye off her chest then rubbing herself all over.

She stepped out of the shower and tossed a towel over her back, rubbing her chest furiously with the rapidly staining towel. Today was a day she had all to herself, no work that she could be bothered to do right now and no lessons she had to attend. Dawn would just have to find something else to waste the day, maybe a mushy romance novel.

Author's Note

A massive thank you to my co-writer and editor Ratchet for stopping me from releasing this chapter until it was ready, just like the others. I am an impatient... person... who will have published this before it was properly done. The title was hard to come up with in this chapter and it was given to me by Ratchet too... about three minutes before this was published! Happy reading!

Chapter 5 - Lonely

Dawn spent the next few months being an overachiever, she was a pegasus student in a unicorn dominated subject and was doing better than nearly every other pony in the classroom. She was doing so well that some of the teachers were becoming concerned with Dawn’s social life and had called her parents about it numerous times and received the same, “She’s doing perfectly well, thank you for your concern.” from Quizzy, so much so that Dawn’s mother had begun to sound like a broken record.

And she was right, Dawn was perfectly happy in her little bubble of reading, learning and occasionally chatting to Legacy. She had warmed to occasionally talking to Cobalt, but she was still shy around him, but she definitely thought as him as a close friend.

The only downside to Dawn and her method of work was that it didn’t involve much proper sleeping, she spent most of her nights in a state of half lucid dream half awake, working away at whatever topic they had been covering that week. Dawn spent most of her waking hours working, reading or indulging her guilty pleasure of mushy romance television and novels.

She managed to get enough sleep to not need a caffeine drip, but definitely not enough that she wasn’t spending most of her lessons dozing, her head resting gently on her folded forehooves. Cobalt had started to sit next to her during some of the periods they shared, he would nudge her awake if she nodded off during an important part of the lecture and keep her straight on homework.

Besides all of this, and her own introverted nature. Dawn was lonely, the only true friend she had was busy most of the time, Legacy’s course was proving much more intensive than expected. She was doing well, but not well enough to be able to spend quality time with her friend.
Dawn still wasn't completely sure about Cobalt, he seemed nice enough and was clever, but she had never been one to make the first move in a friendship.

Instead, Dawn tended to ignore his occasional text message and put aside her mobile if he called her. She had answered a couple of times, but Dawn had never actually gone out to try and talk to him.
Ratchet was the first to notice something was wrong with Dawn, she'd come home after each day she left for college, give him a brief greeting, then tromp upstairs without so much as a smile. She would barely speak a word over the dinner table and be gone the moment she was excused. Ratchet had approached her a couple times and asked her if she was alright. He'd received a simple," Yeah, I'm fine dad.” from her every time.

He had tried different angles every time, even confronting her head on and demanding she told him what was bothering her. Dawn simply waved him aside before muttering “nothing's wrong dad, I'm perfectly fine." Dawn kept up this facade of blank looks and nerves of steel to hide the loneliness boiling inside her like raging tempest threatening to break free.

Legacy hadn't noticed anything change in her friend, she was still the good old blank, sleepy Dawny she had known since they were old enough to speak. There'd been times that Dawn had felt like spilling all her worried in a torrent, flooding Legacy with all her worries and doubts. She hadn't yet, Legacy was her friend, not her emotional punching bag.

All in all, Dawn had decided she didn’t have anyone to talk to about it, she was lonely and that was it. Dawn accepted the fact it wasn’t ever going to get better. She threw herself harder and harder into her studies, being that learning something new everyday helped her suppress her emotions that were pooling into a fetid corner of her mind, slowly becoming more and more rotten. All the while Dawn covered the loneliness growing inside her with a mask of nonchalance and academic successes.

Over the couple months she was alone, nopony at college noticed Dawn’s ailing mental condition till it was well and truly rotting her. She still kept up her grades but was occasionally stopping during her work to shed a couple lonely tears into her hooves before picking her pen back up and finishing whatever piece of work that was due in next. Cobalt would sit next to her and quietly finish his work in college, Dawn would always remain perfectly silent.

--==========================--

Eventually, Cobalt had worked out that something was up with his silent colleague, she had been wiping her eyes all through the lecture on resonance arrays and had barely taken a single note down. He waited until the lecture theatre was mostly empty, then confronted her. he had to find out what was wrong with this pretty mare that sat next to him.

“Dawn, something is up with you” He said, looking at her sallow face, he already knew she didn’t sleep very much, so her odd behaviour wasn’t at all something to do with her being exhausted. “I know I’m still not in your good books, but you know you can tell me anything, and I’ll keep it secret.”

“Nothing's going on with me Cobalt, I’m just a bit tired.” She replied, shoving her papers into her saddlebags and preparing to stand up.

“You’re always tired, this is something else, you looked like you were on the verge of crying all throughout that lecture.” He pointed out, trying to get a look at her eyes, she was hiding them under her long mane.

“I’m fine Cobalt, seriously.” She stood up, letting him get a good look at her sunken, red rimmed eyes. Dawn was lying, it was plainer than anything that she had spent the duration of the lecture holding back tears.

“I don’t think you are. Look Dawn, you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to, but you simply aren’t just, ‘fine’” He reached a hoof out to her but it was batted aside by her wing.

“Stop it Cobalt. I am fine and I don’t want to talk about it, just leave it.” Dawn rubbed her eyes again and tried to squeeze past Cobalt’s chair and the wall, but he pushed himself against the wall, not letting her past.

He pointed to her chair and arched his eyebrows at her. Maybe three minutes of her staring at him angrily, rubbing her eyes passed before she finally relented and sat down. It was a couple minutes more before she finally sighed and nodded at him, “Fine…” she said so quietly it might have been less than a breath.

A million possible questions flew through Cobalt’s head before he settled on one that he hoped would let her answer him without getting all emotional. “Why are you crying Dawn?” He asked her with an air of concern floating on his voice. Dawn was silent for a long while after that question, working her tongue around her mouth. She was upset about so much but she wasn’t sure about telling Cobalt about any of it.

Eventually, Dawn relented and started talking, being careful not to give too much away to the kind-hearted stallion. “Well… there isn't much, I guess I'm worried nopony here will ever like me because I’m different… I'm the only pegasus in this building.” She said gently, tears beginning to brim her eyes, getting ready to burst forth like a waterfall.

Dawn was staring down into her hooves after a moment, Cobalt watched her, concerned for his friend as he saw the mask she had been wearing for months slowly slip from her face.

She hid her head in her hooves before whimpering. Dawn choked on her words,she took a couple moments to rub her eyes and breathe before launching back into her sad speech. With renewed vigour, Dawn’s worries pooled around the two ponies like a black tsunami, and she wasn't done. “I'm worried that Legacy wont have any time left to talk to me because of her course. I don't have any other friends besides you and Legacy and I feel like I don't have anypony I can talk to sometimes."

Cobalt listened to all of Dawn’s worries and anxieties, not finding a place to chip in even a word, so he settled for stunned silence as the stalwart mare in front of him broke down into tears, the floodgates finally open. She was showing no signs of stopping any time soon so he just let her rant and rave, pouring all of her sadness onto the floor around the pair.

Maybe five minutes of crying and dropping her emotions on the poor stallion in front of her, “Cobalt, I-I’m lonely.” She cried before dropping her head into her folded hooves on her desk and letting out a few wretched sobs.

Cobalt did what he thought any sane pony would do and put his hoof around her back, trying to comfort the shaking mare sitting next to him.

At first, Dawn flinched at the comforting embrace, not sure about it, especially from the stallion that was hitting on her the first day at college. Right now it seemed more genuine, maybe he cared for her more than she had first expected.

Soon, she was glad for his affection and care, it abated some of the emotions that were writhing inside of her like an animal in pain. After a minute, Dawn slumped against him and sobbed into his chest fur, her hooves round his middle
, trying to derive all the comfort from him that she could.

Maybe ten minutes of hugging him later, Dawn stopped crying all over Cobalt’s coat. He had, at first, been rather surprised at Dawn’s sudden embrace, and the rest of it holding her back, trying his best to comfort the sobbing mare.

Dawn dried her eyes and looked away from Cobalt, muttering a small thank you to the stallion and covering her blush with her mane. Dawn had only ever hugged her parents before. And even then it was only under great duress that she would embrace anyone really.

Why did a small hug with a stallion (especially this stallion), make her feel better, she had been sobbing her eyes out a minute ago, now she was only sniffling a little. Dawn was almost shocked at herself for embracing him without at least asking.

She spent the best part of five minutes composing herself. Then a thought struck her. When she had her hooves around Cobalt, she had felt warm and protected, as if everything was finally going to be alright in her life when his hooves were around her. Maybe she finally needed to step out of her comfort zone and maybe find a colt to take care of her.

“Are you feeling better now?” Cobalt
asked, prompting a tiny nod from Dawn.

“Good, I'm glad you're not upset anymore.” Dawn rubbed her eyes again before looking at Cobalt. The look in his green eyes was completely unmistakable, genuine care and compassion for Dawn
The pair sat there for a few moments, simply being in each other's company.

Cobalt still looking at a forlorn Dawn. They just sat there, while Dawn began to tidy up her mane. Doing so, she revealed her deep blush to Cobalt. “Please don't tell anypony about this, especially Legacy.” she said quietly to him.

“Not a soul Dawn, promise.” He replied, Dawn relaxed a little.

What did she think of Cobalt, he was always nice to her, he'd been on her side a couple times when others on their course rounded on Dawn for not having their magical abilities. Dawn couldn't deny that he was a handsome stallion, his round glasses giving off an air of nerdiness that was, if anything, cute. And when he had just embraced her, he had shown that he cared about her feelings.

He said it himself, he was happy that she wasn't upset… Maybe, just maybe. She might have some feelings towards him.
Dawn had no real experience what it was to actually like somepony, especially co nsidering the amount of romance stories she had indulged herself in. The most she knew about it was that it was caused by serotonin, dopamine and adrenaline and it messed up ponies lives in the most amazing way.

Dawn looked at the still concerned Cobalt, giving him a small smile to let him know she was alright. He relaxed a little and lit up his horn, his notepad and laptop floating away into his saddlebags. “You completely better?” He asked her, she shook her head in reply, emotions clashing in her head, warring like changelings. “Well considering that breakdown, I wouldn't think so.” Cobalt sighed, flipping his bags shut with a forehoof.

“I'll be fine for now… Thank you for listening.” Dawn said quietly, shuffling in her seat, not sure whether to confess to him that she might like him. She had read this scene over and over in her books, watched it countless times in her dramas and films, never once believing she would be living it. She looked at his smiley face again and decided that she would keep her affection private, she would sit out her battling emotions… Maybe see if Legacy knew what to do.

“Um… can I get out please?” Dawn asked her friend. “I don't want to have to jump over you.” Cobalt nodded and stood up, allowing Dawn to shimmy past him. “I-I’ll see you later Cobalt. Tomorrow probably.” She said to him over her shoulder, he waved his hoof and smiled, leaving her to walk away.

Dawn made a quick getaway, not wanting to talk to Cobalt any more in case she let something slip. She flew home, wanting to stretch her wings out on the cool breeze, it also helped her think. Was she in love with Cobalt? Dawn wasn't sure if she knew. She liked him, sure, but she wasn't sure if she liked him enough to call it love. At least not yet.

--==========================--

When she got home, Dawn got on with her work before lying on her bed and mulling over her emotions. She thought about doing some more work to put her mind off the stallion, but every time she tried to push herself up off her bed, her mind drifted back to the sensation of his hooves round her, comforting her as she wrapped his hooves around his back. Dawn shook her head, trying to dislodge her suddenly romantic feelings from her head.

Dawn turned over on her bed and fiddled with her phone, trying to do anything to take her mind off Cobalt. She tried scrolling through her facehoof account, but ended up scrolling through Cobalt’s pictures.

Dawn instead went to her page and started typing out the last bit of her review of ‘Magical plants and most of their uses’ before tapping post with a wingtip and dropping her phone onto the pillow next to her.

Dawn closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead, the moment her eyelids slid shut, she saw Cobalt’s happily grinning face. “Graaa! Why can't I think of anything else!?” She cried into the pillow, almost childishly kicking her hind legs behind her.

Eventually she relented to her burning desire to know what was up with her raging emotions so she dialed Legacy’s number, listening to the tone three times before a voice Dawn took so much solace in piped from her phone, “Heya pegasister! How've you been doing?” Legacy chirped.

“Been better, good enough though.” Dawn replied, suddenly terribly embarrassed about telling Legacy she might have romantic feelings for Cobalt. “Hi Legacy.” Dawn giggled after a moment’s hesitation

“Its nothing im not used to from you Dawny, you used to blank me all the time.” Legacy giggled, “Now, what chu coming back to me for?”

Dawn sighed, mulling over how to tell Legacy about her feelings, “Umm… I’ve got, well, I’ve got something on my mind, and I don’t really know what to do about it. At all.”

“Do tell Dawny, You know I’ll always listen to your problems.” Legacy replied, sounding concerned for her friend.

Dawn hesiated again, she didn’t want this to be made a big deal out of. “That may be hard… Can you um, can you keep it a secret? From everypony.”

“I’ll try Dawny, I promise.” Legacy reassured.

“Just… alright… um…” Dawn started, then began to let her words turn stale on her tongue, eventually after a minute she managed to squeak out something inaudible, her cheeks burning a bright red.

“Dawn? Are you alright?” Legacy asked, concerned for her shy friend.

Dawn steadied her breathing, listening to her thundering heartbeat. “Err… um, m-maybe…” She started again, then her words faded out again, turning to an abashed silence.

“Dawn just spit it out already!” Legacy demanded, making Dawn jump a little.

“Okok!” Dawn said, trying to find the right words. “I think… I think im hitting on somepony.” Dawn squeaked out, blushing madly and covering her face with her wings, hiding from everything at that moment.

“You are hitting on somepony?” Legacy asked rhetorically, “Who?”

“Do I have to say?” Dawn mumbled out from under her wings.

“Well, no, not if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t want to say right now, but do you have any advice?” Dawn almost whimpered, slowly lowering her wings.

Legacy hesitated, thinking for a few moments, “Um, alright. Being that I’ve already tried my hoof at a relationship before and it didn’t exactly work out. She started, “Don’t rey and force things, don’t go too quickly. Sorta just let things flow naturally.”

“O-ok, although, I wouldn’t exactly call myself a speed demon. At all.” Dawn quipped, finding solace in Legacy’s little giggle.

“You’re the one that wanted advice.” Legacy replied after her laughter had passed, “What else? Do they know you have a thing for them?” She asked after a moment.

Dawn’s blush returned full force, her cheeks blazing a deep red, “I-I’m confident that they like me, b-but I dunno if he knows I like him.” She stammered.

Legacy’s reply was simple but brought another wave of embarrassment rolling through Dawn, “Wait for him to ask you out.”

Dawn squeaked, not at all knowing how to reply. Her? Moonlight Dawn could get asked out by a stallion, on a date!?

“What if he doesn’t ask me?” She breathed after a long moment.

“If you think it’s taking too long, ask him out. Most stallions would jump at a chance to get asked out by a cute mare like you.” Legacy countered, making Dawn squeak with embarrassment.

“Legacy, I-I couldn’t!” Dawn whimpered, covering her face with her wings again. “I don’t think I would have the confidence to ask him that!” Dawn shuddered, she barely had enough confidence to tell Legacy about her feelings about Cobalt.

Legacy huffed, annoyed at Dawn’s self depreciation. “Excuse me Dawn, you might be a shy reclusive mare, but if you see an opportunity to take that stallion out for a cup of coffee, you do it.” She ordered, making Dawn flinch reflexively.
“B-But…” Dawn began before she was silenced by Legacy.

“Moonlight Dawn, You are to seize whoever this colt is by the scruff of his neck and drag him to dinner if you think he might like you. No excuses.” Legacy continued. “And even if you are not completely sure he likes you, ask. Him.”

Dawn had a terrible thought and started to worry again, her terrible, self depreciation beginning to surface again, “What happens if I don’t actually like him though, rejecting him would be something a meanie would do.” Dawn started to worry again before Legacy cut her off again.

“Is he handsome?”

Dawn was taken aback by the question, “He… He’s cute.”

“He’s cute, alright. Is he nice to you, and I mean really nice.” Legacy said after a moment.

“Well, he has been… ‘looking after me’ recently, in a way.” Dawn said after a moment, her blush deepening on her cheeks.

“Looking after you?” Legacy said, a little confused, “You mean with college, right?”

Dawn whimpered a tiny “yes” to her friend and explained how she had been having a hard time for a while and he had helped her get over herself, and after a little bit of of thinking, Dawn explained that she had shared an embrace with Cobalt without mentioning the stallion’s name.

“Well if he cares about you that much, then maybe you should just try asking him if he likes you.” Legacy suggested, “The worst you could get from him is a no.”

“I should hope that he doesn’t say no.” Dawn sighed wistfully. “You think he would?”

“Well I don’t know who it is, but if he genuinely cares about you I don’t see why he would bother to say no.”

“Would it help if I just told you who it was?” Dawn whimpered, “It’s just making me a bit anxious is all.”

“Well, yes, it would help.” Legacy said, almost analytically.

Dawn mumbled her crush’s name into her wings. Legacy couldn’t hear it and Dawn started the longest thirty seconds of her life as she tried to choke out his name.

“Dawn I can’t hear you.” Legacy chided, doing little to reassure Dawn.

“Cobalt!” Dawn said, her cheeks going bright red, “Its Cobalt D-Dust.”

Right then in that moment, Dawn wished she could just melt into the bed and never be seen again. She had actually confessed to somepony else that she liked somepony, and liked him enough for her introverted self to want to embrace him.

“Oh. My. Celestia!” Legacy giggled, “That is so adorable Dawny!” Dawns cheeks reached a new level of red at her friend’s attitude towards it all.

“Hey! I just told you a secret don’t make fun of me about it!” Dawn complained, Legacy apologised.

“Out of all the stallions I know, he is bound to say yes Dawn, Just ask him if he wants to share a cup of coffee with you.” Legacy suggested again, her enthusiasm making Dawn smile, her embarrassment at the whole situation abating a little.

“O-Ok Legacy, I’ll try and ask him after class tomorrow.”

“Awesome, tell me how it goes.” Legacy said in her bouncy voice before asking another killer question, “Also, how good are you at flirting?”

Dawn hid under her pillow at the mere thought of it, “Me? Flirting!?” She was hopeless.

“Well, yes, just a little bit.” Legacy mused.

“Never ever even thought about trying it before…” Dawn whimpered, hiding under her wings again now. “A-any advice?”

“Just make yourself cute, and say what comes naturally to you, not anything stupid that’ll make you sound like an idiot though.” Legacy offered. “Maybe pretty yourself up a little bit too.

“How would I go about ‘prettying myself up’ Legacy?” Dawn, a mare that had worn makeup maybe three times in the past two years asked.

Legacy stifled another giggle, “Oh Dawn you are adorable, maybe put a little makeup on, make your eyes look bigger and maybe add a little blusher…” Legacy stifled another giggle, “Well considering what I can imagine of your face right now, that might be a little unnecessary.”

“Shuddup!” Dawn complained at her. “Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Well, don’t try and force things, nothing too sudden Dawn” Legacy said, “Don’t try and randomly kiss him, not at first at least, don’t try for a random hug either, not unless he asks for one. Don’t ask any revealing questions either.”

“A-Alright Legacy, I’ll keep it in mind. T-thanks for the advice.”

Legacy sounded proud of herself, “Not a problem Dawny, I’m your bestie. It’s my job.” Legacy joked.

“I’ll try my best with him, bye bye Legacy.” Dawn said, moving to hang up the line.
“Bye bye Pegasister!” Legacy giggled, making Dawn grimace at the terrible petname, immediately hanging up the line.

Dawn spent her time up into the small hours of the morning researching ‘what to do on your first date’ and other things like it, one title of an article she read was, ‘How to be Cute for Adolescent Pegasi.’ featured in Filly Fab, one of the most crappy magazines Dawn won’t ever subscribe to.

All in all, Dawn was terrified for meeting Cobalt tomorrow and had no idea what she was going to say to him.

Author's Note

Dear LORD this took ages to write, I know fair well this was a REALLY speech heavy chapter and I know that can be hard to read sometimes but Dawn needed to talk about her feelings and emotions, not just those about Cobalt.

I really wouldn't have been able to write so much speech without Ratchet here so thank you so much again!

Happy reading!

Ratchet- Nfs payback sucks, don't buy it.

Chapter 6 - Lucidity

Lucid Dreams sauntered calmly through the grounds of Fillydelfia college, her ceremonial armour sparkling in the sunlight. Lucid was a ranking officer in Princess Luna’s dreamguard and she had been invited to come down to Filly college to teach a short crash-course in dream magic to the magical sciences class. She had made up her deep red mane in some semblance of tidiness before making the train journey from Canterlot to Fillydelfia. She opened the door to the magical sciences building with a sharp telekinetic push and stepped through, the shiny floor reflecting her dark green coat. She made sure she was wearing her ceremonial armour correctly in her reflection in the large mirror that adorned the wall, the helmet was perched on top of her head at the right angle, the plate resting gently on her muzzle. There were a couple of students milling in the hall that stared at her for a few moments, the deep navy of the Dreamguard’s ceremonial armour wasn’t often seen outside of Canterlot castle.

“Alright then, let’s go and greet the scamps.” She muttered quietly, nudging the hilt of her sword with a hoof and pushing the door to the lecture theatre open. It was mostly full, Lucid spotted maybe thirty unoccupied seats in the room full of unicorns. She got a couple curious stares as she made her way down to the lectern.

The room was relatively noisy, the conversations between the students meshing together into a tapestry of noise that Lucid couldn’t be heard at all through. She cleared her throat and raised her head and channeled her inner drill sergeant. “Everypony, shut your muzzles!” She yelled at the congregated crowd, some jumping out of their seats, some whirling round to stare at the armoured pony with wide, surprised expressions. She got what she wanted, not a muzzle was opened.

“Alright then, thank you. I am Lucid Dreams and I will be your teacher for a couple of lectures. Dream magic and all of that.” She began, noting that some of the students began to go back to mobile phones and scratching away at pieces of paper. “Now I know that not all of you are interested in this subject, but I will expect at least a little bit of participation from all of you.” She glowered at the students, receiving a couple of confused looks from the assembled ponies.

What she didn’t notice was the grey pegasus in the corner only just being held in her seat by a straining blue unicorn.

“Dawn… Dawn we all know you want to be in the Dreamguard. But Celestia you don’t have to be this excited over having one of them come and be our teacher.” Cobalt said to her, having to duck under a wing that Dawn was flapping excitedly.

Dawn hadn’t asked him out yet, she still had yet to work up the courage to ask him if he still liked her so far.

“There’s not much theory in dream magic, just some of the words that mean stuff, so I don’t know why I was asked to come and teach you how to do dream magic. You should already know how to share consciousnesses with one another?” Lucid asked the students, receiving a cacophony of nods in response. “Cool, there’s a couple symbols you need to know too, but those can come another time. Anyway, I prefer teaching stuff by getting down and dirty.” She chuckled to herself.

“This is probably going to be the one time that your professor tells you that it is alright to fall asleep in her lecture. So besides when I am speaking with you, just don’t.” She looked at the crowd, some of them already dropping their heads into their hooves. “Just before you doze off, you need to make a couple preparations, specifically you need to visualise yourself waking up in a completely white space with a little doorway off in the distance.”

Once she had explained some of the complexities of dreamwalking to the students, she rested her perpetually sleepy eyes and thought of her little door off in the distance.

--==========================--

It wasn’t long before Lucid was sitting in the dreamscape, waiting for the students to start to appear in the starry land. There were a couple trickling in, a tall mare, a squinty blue stallion and a grey pegasus.

“Alrighty then, I see we have the first few ponies in.” Lucid said, walking towards them. “And apparently we also have our first case of zoomorphism, are you alright?”

Dawn, the grey pegasus, was completely fine, she was completely used to having wings, being that she was, indeed a pegasus. “Um… yes?” She replied to the inquisitive Lucid in front of her.

“Well that’s great!” Lucid said happily, “Personally, I freaked out the first time I found out I didn’t have wings.”

Dawn furrowed her brow, “Um… I’m not a unicorn in real life, I’m a pegasus.”

Lucid, who had started to turn away to talk one of the other students who had popped into the landscape, hesitated and turned around. She looked at Dawn like she was an alien, “What?” She asked in a dangerous tone, her hoof instinctively going to the hilt of her sword.

“Um… im a pegasus, not an unicorn.” Dawn repeated, a little uneasy to Lucid’s sudden threatening tone of voice.

“How? Only unicorns can get into the dreamscape!” Lucid advanced on the scared mare in front of her. “How the hell are you here?” She demanded, making Dawn stumble back and nearly fall over her own hooves.

“I-I…” Dawn stammered, trying not to cave under the sudden hostility. “I-I’ve always b-been able to g-get into the dreamscape.”

Lucid was having none of it, she drew her sword with her teeth and grabbed the hilt in her magic. One fluid motion swung it down towards Dawn who screamed and flapped her wings, propelling herself away from the sharp blade. “You’re dangerous and I can’t allow you to leave this place!” Lucid growled, holding the blade at eye level.

Dawn was backing away from her along the ground, her panic making it impossible to tell which bubble floating around them was hers. The students were congregating around the pair, unsure whether to stop Lucid from impaling their classmate.

“I-I don’t want to hurt you!” Dawn cried, scrambling to her hooves and keeping her distance from the sword wielding mare in front of her.

“I can’t take any risks around these students.” Legacy said firmly, taking another swing at Dawn which was just dodged by a hair’s breadth. Dawn could hear the sword humming through the air.

“She won’t hurt anyone!” A familiar voice sounded out from the crowd and Cobalt pushed to the front, fiercely glaring at Lucid and her sword. “If she had wanted to hurt any of us, she will have already done it, Moonlight Dawn has been in this class for six months now and she hasn’t shown any hostility towards anyone!”

Cobalt stepped out of the crowd and stood between Lucid and her vibrating blade and Dawn protectively. Dawn was shaking with fear and adrenaline, tears brimming in her eyes as who she would argue was her role model pointed a deadly weapon at her.

“How can I believe that she isn’t dangerous, for all we know she has manipulated you all into thinking she isn’t a danger to you all!” Lucid growled, lowering her sword a moment, “Now get out of my way.”

Cobalt grit his teeth, he couldn’t deny that he was a little bit terrified of the armoured mare pointing a sword at him, but even through his fear, he stood his ground. Dawn mattered to him, probably more than she knew. “No, I won’t move. I won’t move because Dawn is my friend.” Cobalt snarled back at Lucid, trying his best to look intimidating to the dreamguard.

Lucid raised the sword again, trying to find the will inside her to strike the stallion in front of her aside and drive the point of her sword into the pegasus cowering behind him, even though she had a million reasons to strike them both down this moment, she just couldn’t do it. “For Celestia’s sake kid! Move!” She shouted, her frustration growing as he maintained a silent glare at her, not at all willing to move. The class bearing witness to this unfolding weren’t at all helping either.

After a few minutes of Lucid and Cobalt staring daggers into each other, Lucid had run through every situation in her head, what if she was really just killing an innocent mare that could dreamwalk, in which case she’d probably be locked up for murder and the family of the little mare would be distraught. On the other hoof she might be saving the lives of all of these ponies. After she had thought about it for way too long, she shook her head and looked away from the blue stallion glaring at her before sliding her sword back into its sheath. “Class dismissed, everyone go back to your own dreams and wake up.” Lucid mumbled, taking off her helmet and letting her mane cascade around her shoulders, she dropped the helm next to her and rubbed her temples as if sifting through too many thoughts.

None of the students moved, their eyes were all fixed on Dawn and Cobalt. The stallion was doing his best to comfort the terrified filly, crouched down next to her with one hoof around her shoulders like a safety blanket. Dawn was shuddering, crying quietly into her hooves while Cobalt calmly told her she was safe.

Lucid spoke up again, “I said. Leave!”

The rest of the students jumped into action, finding their different dreams and touching the bubbles like Lucid had explained earlier and popping back into their own dreams, the bubbles popping with soapy sounds moments later.

Cobalt and Dawn walked to her dream bubble in silence, she was endlessly thankful to him for protecting her but right now, her emotions were all confused again, his hooves around her had made the terror and adrenaline mix with sudden butterflies and produce some unintelligible emotion that she had no way of expressing. Instead of trying, she mumbled her thanks to Cobalt before touching her bubble and letting the world go white.

--==========================--

Dawn’s eyes flew open, her cheeks felt wet as she crammed papers into her bag, she didn’t want to be here she wanted to run home and bury her head in her pillow, she wanted to climb into bed and stay there forever and never have to worry about anything again.

She was about to begin her mad dash out of the hall before she felt a comforting hoof on her shoulder. She glanced to the side to see Cobalt’s worrying eyes watching over her protectively. The emotions in his eyes flickered furiously through fury, regret, fear and sorrow for Dawn.

Dawn shuddered at his gentle touch, torn between crumpling against him and shrugging his hoof off her shoulder. Instead, she paused for a moment before packing her saddlebags full of her papers and pens and shakily standing up. Cobalt slung his saddlebags over his back and stood too, floating Dawn’s bags onto her back for her.

They were about to step out of the doors before a tidal wave of ponies stampeded into the isle before them. Dawn was trapped with Cobalt, unable to get out of their seats. The pair just stood there, waiting for the flood of ponies to lessen.

Cobalt and Dawn jumped into the air as Lucid slammed her hooves into the desk in front of them aggressively like a pair of cloven hammers striking an anvil. “Answers. Now.” She demanded, practically growling at the pair of quaking teenagers. “How the hell are you able to get into the dreamscape as a pegasus?!” Dawn didn’t answer, her eyes were locked on Lucid and her rage.

Cobalt spoke up after a few moments of terrified silence, “I don’t think Dawn’ll give you any answers till you stop frothing at the mouth and shouting at us.” He put a hoof on Dawn’s shoulder. “You don’t have to tell her anything you don’t want to.”

After taking a few deep breaths, Dawn managed to begin to explain how she could dreamwalk, “M-mum isn’t a pony… she’s um… this thing called an abstract… I-I don’t really know much about it besides that she c-c-can read minds and do this weird… flickery thing that lets her walk through walls and stuff…” She hesitated, Lucid’s eyes were still burning into Dawn’s like lasers. “M-mum can’t dreamwalk, but my grandm-m-mother could… I never met her.” She managed to stammer.

“And you aren’t making this up?” Lucid asked, still keeping her dangerous tone as if she was going to grab Dawn and yank a confession out of her throat.

Dawn nodded silently, doing her best not to run for the hills. Cobalt tightened his comforting embrace around her as she hid beneath her mane from the interrogating eyes of Lucid Dreams.

The younger blue unicorn spoke up now, “She isn’t causing any harm, alright?” He glowered at Lucid, “Just leave her alone now, you’re scaring her.”

Lucid looked at the terrified pair, sighed and muttered a half assed apology, but making sure that they knew that this wasn’t anywhere near the end of her investigation and that she would be bringing this up with the princess. At hearing this, Dawn wasn’t sure whether to be scared or overjoyed, at the present time on the other hoof, she just wanted to be held by Cobalt.

Lucid glared at the colt protecting Dawn and began to walk off, muttering things to herself.

“Are you alright Dawn?” Cobalt asked once Lucid was out of earshot. “You’re shaking.”

Dawn wasn’t alright, she was scared of Lucid. So she answered him silently by slowly putting her forelegs around the colt and hugging him tight, burying her face in his shoulder for all the comfort she could gain from his fuzz. He was taken aback for a moment, she’d only hugged him once before and that was as unexpected as now. To this, Cobalt gently laid his head on hers and hugged her back, relishing in their embrace, trying to give the little mare all the comfort he could.

“Dawn…” He began after a long moment, “Do you want to go and get drink to calm your nerves? I’m sure it’ll help.”

Dawn hesitated, was that a date proposal? No, even Cobalt wasn’t dumb enough to ask her out in this situation. She nodded slowly, still embracing the colt tightly, still trying to take all the comfort from him that she could.

The pair stayed like that for a while longer, Dawn was afraid to pull out of the embrace and show her furiously blushing cheeks to the world.

Author's Note

This was a hard chapter to write, I must confess that I didn't really want an action sequence in this chapter, but after reading it through and receiving editing advice from Ratchet, we both felt it necessary to have the segment in this chapter, I also sorta needed to get the story between Cobalt and Dawn properly started, I don't want to rush it but after 5 chapters of them being generally awkward around each other, I felt that I needed one of them to make a move towards the other. I knew Dawn wouldn't be brave enough to ask Cobalt out, so I just had the stallion do the work for her.

Happy reading!

Chapter 7 - Cups of coffee

Cobalt eventually managed to coax Dawn out of their embrace with calming words and promises that he would let her hug him whenever she wanted to. She still spent a couple minutes hiding behind her mane, trying to keep her emotions in check.

The pair were now carefully making their way to the little coffee shop where they had decided to share a drink together, the walk from the magical sciences building to the squat, domed building seemed to take aeons. There were an endless amount of ponies between the tall archaic building that Dawn and Cobalt sat most of their lessons and their destination. The simple task of trotting across the road and between a couple buildings seemed insurmountable.

“One… large frappuccino for me,” Cobalt ordered the barista when they arrived, “And for you Dawn?”

“Hot chocolate… all the toppings on it but no cinnamon.” Dawn murmured, still trying to fight back her blush that she was essentially going on a date… “Please.” She corrected herself a moment later.

The barista nodded. “Six fifty.” She said in an bored monotone before turning and beginning to get out cups, giving Cobalt time to fish out the bits.

Dawn tried offering her own bits to Cobalt to cover the cost of her drink, the stallion politely declined them saying it was his treat for her. All the while he was wearing an adorable, dopey smile that he could barely hide from his little friend. Dawn quietly pushed her bits back into her purse and slipped it into her bags when she worked out that he wasn’t going to let her pay for it.

Five minutes of the barista pratting about with the coffee machines, Dawn was sitting opposite to Cobalt on a secluded table at the back of the little café. The little mare was doing quite well, hiding behind her mountain of cream and other decorations foaming out of her mug while Cobalt was trying his best not to comment on how cute she looked when she was embarrassed.

After the pair had finished most of their drinks, Cobalt decided to try and strike up a conversation with Dawn, “You feeling better now Dawn?” He asked her, the concerned note in his voice too obvious.

Dawn nodded in reply, she was feeling much better now she was out of that Celestia-forsaken room and somewhere warm and comforting with someone that made her feel warm and comfortable. “An-And you? You were a real hero back in there.” She asked him in a low whisper.

“Yeah, I’m feeling better… I think adrenaline kicked in and I just… acted.” He replied, trying to swallow his pride at essentially saving Dawn’s life.

Dawn smiled, “Thanks for saving me, I couldn’t really say thanks earlier...” She looked at him over her mug before taking another sip of the warm chocolaty concoction, feeling the warmth spread to the tips of her wings.

Now it was Cobalt’s turn to go red, “Well it wasn’t really much, you were in danger so I saved you, simple really.” he said without really thinking, dropping his eyes as his cheeks started to redden.

Dawn looked at the furiously blushing stallion, he was obviously hiding something. She wasn’t sure whether she was going to ask him what it was so she took another gentle sip from her mug, letting the warm drink flow down her.

Cobalt took a few moments to compose himself before draining his cup and placing it down on his saucer and breathing out and working his jaw. He wanted to ask Dawn out, properly ask her out for a nice meal somewhere and maybe go to the cinema and watch a film of her choosing, but after what had happened today, Cobalt didn’t think this was the time or the place for that anymore.

They sat together, each of them actively seeking eye contact but shying away at the last moment. This went on in complete silence for an agonisingly long time for the pair before finally Dawn broke, she looked up at the idyllic stallion sitting in front of her and finally made proper eye contact, her cheeks flushed deeply as she finally wrestled her shaking nerves, then she asked a fatal question of Cobalt, “D-Do you like me?”

Cobalt looked like he had been struck, his cheeks flushed deeper than ever as he lowered his gaze and nodded ever so slightly like a little foal that just got caught red hooved sneaking into the cookie jar. “Y-Yeah, I um… I guess I do.” He mumbled, slowly looking up at the small mare.

Dawn was shocked with herself, where the hay did that come from, she never asked anyone anything like that at all! And why was his blush so cute and… she hesitated in her thoughts… Moonlight Dawn, introverted, socially outcast, tiny Dawn liked the stallion sitting in front of her… and she liked him alot.

Dawn felt her cheeks glowing as she studied Cobalt’s embarrassed face, his eyes were flitting all over the place and his cheeks were redder than her’s. “I… I, I think…” Dawn began, trying to put her words in a meaningful order, “I think… I like you.” She mumbled, trying to tear her eyes off the embarrassed colt sitting in front of her.

Cobalt, still blushing lowered his head and floated out a pen before writing something on a napkin and sliding it towards Dawn, ‘Want to go and get food sometime, maybe see a movie?’ he had written in his small, neat writing. Dawn smiled and stifled a small giggle, pulling out a pen of her own and turning the tissue over, ‘sure, just tell me when and where.’ she wrote back in her rather untidy mouth writing.

She slid the paper back over to Cobalt, eliciting a small squeak of happiness from the blue stallion and making her smile. Dawn was quite surprised when he stood up and walked around the table to face her.

“Can I have a hug?” Cobalt asked endearingly, standing close to Dawn. She nodded and smiled, letting him advance and take her into a tight embrace. She nuzzled into his shoulder and hugged him back, grasping his back tight with her forehooves. “I don’t think you’d let me kiss you yet, would you?”

Dawn shook her head silently, still happily nuzzling the stallion’s fur.

“Didn’t think so.” He murmured, feeling Dawn’s muzzle gently rubbing against his shoulder.

They broke apart after a couple moments, Dawn sadly letting the colt go. He stood up and went back to his seat, plonking himself down and gazing at her, love in his green eyes.

“I guess that seals it then.” Cobalt said after a hesitant pause, “You and me are a thing.”

Dawn balked at that and squeaked, her wings springing up defensively around her, hiding her blushing face and making Cobalt chuckle.

“You’re cute when you do that.” He tittered, making Dawn hide behind her mane too. “For our… Day out. How about this weekend, we’ll go and find somewhere to eat then go see a film of your choice?”

Dawn nodded.

Cobalt smiled, “Where you heading after we go our separate ways?”

“Home.” Dawn squeaked, managing to come out from behind her wings just enough for Cobalt to see her glowing cheeks.

“I’ll walk you home?” He asked her hopefully, “I’d be honoured.”

Dawn sank lower into her feathers, then nodded, “Y-y-y-yes… I-I think I’d like that.” She murmured after a moment.

Cobalt beamed and adorably clapped his hooves together like a foal getting given a new toy. “Yay!”

--==========================--

The street lamps had flickered on by the time Dawn and Cobalt had left the college campus, they were walking along a path striped with light like a zebra’s hide. They’d spent much longer together than they had first expected to, Dawn had been apprehensive about Cobalt at first, but she had quickly warmed to his occasional compliments and nearly constant attention. After the ninth little shoulder nuzzle from the overexcited colt, Dawn had asked him to let up a little. She was all for having the occasional snuggle, but not constant, non stop cuddling.

The pair had spent a little while in the bookshop together, Pages keeping a keen eye on the pair, her elderly eyes letting her know instantly that the pair were a little more than just friends. They hadn’t bought anything when they left, but they’d learned a little about each other, for example, Dawn spent hours in here reading and was best friends with the old mare Pages and Cobalt was a sucker for mystery novels and low fantasy.

Now they were just walking together closely, enjoying companionable silence only broken by the occasional bird and the sound of their hooves clopping against the pavement. Dawn directed Cobalt round the corner to her house, stopping before they got close enough to be seen.

“I guess this is goodnight then?” Cobalt murmured, maybe a little sadly.

Dawn felt pity for the stallion being upset she was leaving, “Y-Yeah, I guess.” she purred to him.

Cobalt looked down, almost embarrassed, “I must confess, I was looking things up earlier… and um… we’re meant to have a small kiss goodnight, meant to be healthy for a relationship…” Cobalt said, a little sheepish.

Dawn blushed, then gave him a small smile and offered him her flushed cheek which he kissed gently, although it was a little clumsily, it was obviously his first time trying to kiss a mare.

“Goodnight Cobalt, speak to you soon.” Dawn purred at him, nuzzling his shoulder.

“G-Goodnight Dawn, see ya’ later.” He said quietly as Dawn turned around and started walking towards her house away from him.

--==========================--

Dawn went in and was thankful to find that Quizzy was out somewhere, her father was in his workshop messing about with some piece of delicate machinery so she poked her nose into the garage and said hello to him. She received a dismissive greeting from him in return and decided to retreat from the room before he asked Dawn how her day was.

She walked upstairs quickly, feeling her cheeks burning brightly before she slung her bags into her bedroom and went into the bathroom.

She splashed cold water in her face, trying to rid her head of Cobalt’s handsome smile and that cute way he pushed his glasses up his nose every couple of minutes. He had kissed her! Dawn checked her reflection in the mirror to make sure he hadn’t left any marks on her coat and breathed out when she had confirmed that her dyed fur was spotless.

Sitting down at her desk, Dawn pulled out her phone and checked her messages, seeing a couple notifications, one from her phone company and two from Legacy.

Dawn’s friend had sent her a line of grinning emoticons before she had sent Dawn a picture of the blushing grey pegasus gazing at Cobalt.

“Legacy you… I don’t even know.” Dawn grumbled, tossing her phone onto her desk and flopping down on her bed. Dawn had work she needed to be doing, but right now she didn’t want to get on with it, she just wanted to climb into her bed and curl up.

She curled under her covers, still trying to work out her feelings before her phone buzzed again. Dawn groaned and felt around on her desk for it, eventually grabbing it and clicking the screen with her hoof, it was a message from Legacy again.

‘I’m proud of you Pegasister.’ The text read, Dawn couldn’t help but roll her eyes and smile at the nickname, she typed out a few draft messages trying to explain that she didn’t really know what she was doing before she settled on a simple, ‘thanks Legacy’ to her friend.

Dawn flicked her phone onto flight mode and plugged it in so she wouldn’t be bothered by any more random embarrassing messages from her friend. Dragging herself out from under her covers, she hammered the spacebar on her computer and watched the ring spinning on her black screen as her computer slowly woke up.

She waited a couple moments while the fans whirred a quiet harmony before the screen lit up, demanding a password. Dawn tapped in the little phrase she used as her password before she set about finishing an essay due in for the next week.

Author's Note

AAAAA this was hard to write, I'm not good at writing romance stuff, I am trying not to make Dawn and Cobalt's relationship such a major plot point (yes, it is important so I'm not going to just leave it alone)
But I really need to get Dawn into the Dreamguard before this ends up being some sort of college romance. Now I'm not at all ripping on University Days, (loved that story) But I must confess, that was not at all what I was going for here, this is a lighthearted story about the Dreamguard and their youngest member.

And as always, happy reading!

Chapter 8 - Letters home

A couple weeks had passed since Dawn had gone out with Cobalt for the first time, she was now much more secure around him and she was happy to let him nuzzle her affectionately pretty much whenever he wanted. Quizzy had sniffed out that Dawn had suddenly gained a special somepony like a bloodhound, demanding to get to meet the lucky stallion the moment Dawn was happy to let him anywhere near her parents.

Poor Ratchet didn’t really stand a hope in hell when he found out, he cuddled his embarrassed daughter tight, going on and on about how he was proud of her but she was not allowed to take him to bed with her, not even to use like a cuddly bear.

Dawn had been surprised by with flowers and books she had passively mentioned not being able to get her hooves on, Cobalt was like that, resourceful but soppy. If anything, Dawn had to say that she was getting quite attached to the dopey blue stallion, so much so that she was looking past how romantically hopeless he was. If anything, Dawn found his over endearing demeanour quite adorable.

It was the next of their lecture-tutorial-things with Lucid Dreams that week, Dawn wasn’t sure whether she was looking forward to it or if she was absolutely terrified to sit in that seat and face that mare again. Cobalt kept reassuring her that she was safe and that he would protect her no matter what, but Dawn was still just uneasy enough to want to skip that class out of fear alone.

Quizzical knocked on the door, asking if she could come in.

“Yeah mum, it’s fine.” Dawn said in the general direction of the door, focusing on the book she was reading.

Quizzy opened the door, holding a dark blue envelope in her teeth, “It ok if I sit Darling?” She asked, closing the door and beginning to sit on Dawn’s bed.

“What’s the letter?” Dawn asked, finishing her paragraph and closing the book, leaving her page marked by a piece of ribbon.

“I don’t know, it says that only you are to open it though.” Quizzy mused, passing the envelope over to Dawn.

Dawn turned it over in her hooves, reading the intricate, flowing script in a delicate silver ink, stars seemed to have been drawn around the address by a careful magical grip. Dawn noted that the calligraphy ordered that only ‘Miss Moonlight Dawn’ was to open the letter.

“Never been addressed as a miss before Mum, guess i’m growing up.” Dawn joked to her mother before flipping the envelope open again and carefully splitting the seam and opening the beautiful package. Inside was a letter written on silken paper with an ink so dark it was as if the midnight had been used to scribe the flowing lines and scratches on the parchment.

Dawn began to read the beautifully stylized letter.

‘Dear Miss Moonlight Dawn,

I have been informed by one of my officers, a miss Lucid Dreams, that you are a rather remarkable little Pegasus. I have learned that you have the ability to walk between dreams rather like myself. I also understand that my dreamguard scared you terribly last time you met her and I wish to extend to you a royal apology for her unnecessary actions and I do hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive her transgression.

I understand that it had been your lifelong dream to become a member of my dreamguard and that every academic action you have taken is to forward your ability to fall into the ranks of my guardsponies. As the public leader of the dreamguard, and its founding member, I would like to extend to you an invitation to come and meet with me in Canterlot Castle to discuss a possible place for an amazing pony such as yourself within the ranks of the dreamguard when you have completed your studies.

I will not lie to you that joining the dreamguard can be a difficult process due to the physical taxations that will fall upon you as well as the necessary ceremony. But besides this, from what I have learned, you will have a full application to become a well respected name within the guard and I wish you luck.

If you are to take my invitation, please come to Canterlot Castle the next time it is possible for you to and present this letter to any of the royal guard, they have been instructed to allow you in to speak with me privately and if you encounter any problems, I will be just a dream away.

Yours truly,
Princess Luna of Equestria’

At the bottom of the letter was an intricate drawing of the princess’ cutiemark inlaid with a devastatingly complex arcane circle that even Dawn couldn’t entirely work out.

Dawn sat there after finishing the letter, absolutely speechless. In her hooves was worth more than gold dust. “Oh… my… Celestia.” Dawn managed to whisper after a moment of clutching the paper to her chest.

Quizzy offered to take the letter from her daughter and Dawn obliged, gently hading the paper over to her mother like it was an infant. Quizzy spent a couple moments reading the letter, then gasped when she realised who it was from, then read it through again another three or more times before folding it up carefully and grabbing Dawn.

“I’m so proud of you.” Quizzy said, embracing her daughter tight and making her squeak with embarrassment. Dawn was given a little nuzzle on the forehead by her endearing mother before Quizzy skipped off to tell Ratchet about Dawn’s letter.

Dawn sat on her bed in silence for a while longer, staring at the letter, a little bit intimidated by the royal blue envelope and flowing, spidersweb like writing that adorned it, accented by the tiny stars dotted around the silver script.

There was little to say about it, Dawn found herself on a train to Canterlot three days later, she was going with her mother who had a convenient appointment. They were to stay for two days in total. Dawn had made sure she wasn’t going to miss any important lectures and that she would be able to catch up with any work. Cobalt wasn’t overly happy to be left alone for two days, but he was cheered up when Dawn showed him the letter from the Princess.

They had an overnight train ride to Canterlot, Quizzy slept most of the way, used to long journeys. Dawn couldn’t sleep for most of it so she finished her book, finished two essays and was three quarters through a romance film when her mother stirred and Canterlot station trundled into sight through the window.

Dawn hadn’t been to Canterlot for years, but now she was seeing the majestic city for the first time as a young adult, she finally began to appreciate the tantalising beauty and fantastical engineering put into the city. She saw the low glow of magical runes and circles around the edge of the city, recognising the glyphs used for protection and weightlessness. Dawn didn’t really have to be Einstein to realise that the grand city needed those magical supports to remain affixed to the mountain and not plunge down into the little settlements below.

Quizzy started to stir as they passed the second waterfall, the train comically splashing through the low waters. Dawn Quickly closed down her horsemovie and stuffed her laptop into her bag before her mother could rub the sleep out of her eyes.

“We nearly there?” Quizzical yawned, only just managing to sit up with her mane sticking out like a porcupine.

“Yeah, not long now mum.” Dawn replied, grabbing the power cord for her laptop and wrapping it up before putting it into her bag. “You going to cover your sigil?”

“I wish I didn’t have to, fu-bloody racists.” Quizzy spat, pulling out a comb, tin of grey makeup and a mirror before making herself presentable.

Dawn sighed, being sort of glad she didn’t have the identifying mark of an abstract but at the same time being sad that she wasn’t more like her mother.

“All prepare to disembark!” A voice bellowed down the carriage, the conductor marching down the isle ordering the passengers to get ready to get off, he shouted a couple more times before walking into the next carriage.

Quizzical and Dawn were left on the platform, the plan was that Quizzy would walk Dawn to the castle then run to her appointment before coming back later for Dawn.

--==========================--

The castle was vast, enormous even. The spires and towers dwarfing everything around it them. Dawn got into the grounds easily enough with Quizzy, only having to go through a little bit of security which she expected. On the other hoof, Dawn ran into a little more trouble when she tried to get into the actual castle.

“Halt. State your business and where you are from.” One of the two guards approaching the pair of mares growled.

Before Dawn could speak, Quizzy smiled at the pair of armoured unicorns. “My daughter is her to see her majesty Princess Luna concerning a formal invitation she received two days ago… ish. So if you’d be so kind to show her to the princess, we’d be so happy. Oh and we’re from Fillydelfia.”

The guards paused, “We need proof that you are Miss Moonlight Dawn.” the other demanded, taking a step towards the pair of mares.

Dawn fished about in her bags for her letter, presenting it to the armoured ponies. The pair stared at it for a couple moments before nodding and smiling at her.

“Follow us please.” The first stallion said, turning round and beginning to walk away.

“Good luck Dawny, love you.” Quizzical purred to her daughter, giving her cheek a loving nuzzle before beginning to walk away.

Dawn followed the pair of stallions through the halls of Canterlot Castle, gawking at the high ceilings, the mirrored tiles and the countless pieces of art that adorned the cavernous hallways. Dawn stayed close to the pair of guards out of fear of getting lost before they could reach Princess Luna.

The walk was short and uneventful, the guards plodded along in silence before depositing Dawn next to a pair of double doors emblazoned with the Princess’ bright white cutiemark.

“Just knock, and don’t worry about formality, Princess Luna is rather casual in private.” One of the guards smiled at Dawn before the pair walked away, talking in quiet voices between each other.

Dawn turned to the imposing doors, suddenly feeling like an ant faced with a monolith. A lump caught in her throat and her legs nearly fell out from underneath her as she lifted her hoof up to knock on the door. It took Dawn about three minutes of hard breathing to pull herself together enough to squeeze her eyes tightly shut and knock three times on the imposing door.

There was a momentary pause before a bored voice came from inside the room, “Come in!”

Dawn’s legs were jelly again as she slowly turned the door handle and pushed the door open to reveal a comfortable looking bedroom… office… room. Princess Luna was sitting at her desk, reading a book with her hind hooves propped up casually on her desk. She was chewing her pen and her mane looked like it hadn’t been brushed in three days. On top of all of that was that she was wearing three of her horseshoes and her crown was tossed casually on the floor next to her bed.

“Hold on there, whoever you are. I need to know if - Oh hell yes! My headcanon was right!” Luna cheered, she was reading a Daring Doo book, the newest one. ‘Daring Doo and the Crystal Escapade.’

She folded an envelope in half and slipped it in between the pages of her book before dropping in on her desk with a satisfying thud. Luna looked over at Dawn a little confused, “Hello there? Are you lost?” She asked, then panicked, realising how disheveled she looked. “I am terribly sorry for the lack of appearance, I can be a little lavish when I am not attempting to keep up appearances.”

Dawn stammered, here was her idol, her lifelong hero, looking like any other old pony early in the morning. Dawn stood there, her eyes wide and staring as Luna struggled to put her hind hoof in the rogue horseshoe, eventually giving up and balancing her crown badly on her head.

“You wouldn’t happen to be Moonlight Dawn?” Luna asked after a long moment of Dawn working her jaw, taking pity on Dawn and her stammering. The tiny pegasus silently nodded in reply, slowly going into her saddlebags and pulling out the blue envelope.

“Ah! Good you got my letter, do you mind closing the door too?” Luna smiled and retreated back behind her desk. “I do apologise about my… informality… I must confess that I am not used to visitors this early in the morning.”

Dawn managed to come in and close the door, she was in shock from seeing Princess Luna acting like just another pony. The little grey mare came in and stood in the middle of the room while Luna attempted to wrestle her mane into some semblance of order with a large, emerald studded brush.

“So, Dawn.” Luna began, finally managing to pull the rogue horseshoe onto her remaining hoof. “You say that the origin of your dreamwalking ability originates from your mother’s race?”

Dawn slowly nodded, “Y-yeah… M-my mum isn’t exactly a pony.” She stammered, trying not to get flustered by the presence of the monarch.

“If she isn’t a pony, then what is she?” The princess asked, sitting down at her desk and motoning for Dawn to sit in the comfy looking chair opposite to her. “And don’t worry about my sister and I taking repercussions against her, we do not wish to start war with another race.”

Dawn carefully sat down, taking her bags off her back and placing them carefully to her side. “Mum… Mum is an abstract, I don’t really know much about them besides that they can walk through walls and read minds.” Dawn took a deep breath, “She also doesn’t have a cutiemark, instead she has this thing called a sigil, they’re like a more solid cutiemark that gives each abstract a title, like mum’s is ‘Calming Guardian.’”

Luna nodded, “Your mother can dreamwalk too I suppose?” She asked, looking at Dawn inquisitively.

Dawn shook her head, “No, mum can’t, she said I get it off my grandma, she said that she could dreamwalk… I never met her though.” She said sadly.

Dawn and Luna kept up their conversation for the best part of an hour, Dawn becoming more and more comfortable in Princess Luna’s presence. Eventually, the subject came onto something Dawn was much more interested in.

“Dawn, you are interested in joining the guard, aren’t you?” Luna asked, making Dawn nod furiously.

“Of course I do!” Dawn squeaked, blushing a little at her excitement. “Ever since I saw them in action for the first time, I have wanted to join them.”

Luna smiled at the excitable mare in front of her, “I think I can get you a job when you think you’re ready for it.” She said, “After you’ve finished college of course.”

Dawn could barely contain her excitement, she had just been offered a job by the Princess of the Night to join the dreamguard. All she could manage was a half squeaked, “Th-Thank you.”

“Do not thank me Dawn, there are few that want to join the guard or have the necessary talents to qualify within our ranks, I should be thanking you for coming to see me about joining our military.” Princess Luna sighed, smiling, “You will receive more details in the mail soon, for now, go and enjoy the city. Meet with your family here in Canterlot.”

Dawn began to turn around and open the door when the princess cleared her throat, Dawn turned back around to face her.

“I have a gift for you Dawn, I’ll have it delivered to your hotel room” The princess said, smiling at her little guest before asking, “You are staying in the Strand Palace Hotel, aren’t you?”

Dawn smiled and nodded to the dishevelled princess, “What is it?” she asked.

“A surprise, be careful with it though. Now shoo and let me get myself tidied up.” Luna replied, straightening her crown.

Dawn smiled and nodded before bowing scampering from the messy bedroom, grinning like a foal given sugar. A pair of guards quickly appeared to escort her from the castle and into the streets of Canterlot, all the while she was trying to contain her excitement over being a member of the dreamguard… sorta.

--==========================--

After spending hours exploring the winding streets of the gleaming capital city, Dawn made her way back to her hotel where she was staying with her mother. Quizzy was already back and had made herself at home on one of the beds, turning her pillows and quilt into a nest of sorts where she was roosting happily, messing with her feathers.

She looked up as Dawn entered the room and waved a messy wing at her excited daughter. “Some random pony left a box here for you Dawn, said only you were allowed to open it.” Quizzy said, gesturing to the long case lying on the other bed.

“Princess Luna said she was giving me a gift, have any idea what it could be?” Dawn asked, her mother shrugged in reply. Dawn sighed and lifted up the case, it was rather heavy. The three buckles along the seam taunted her with their simplicity as she fumbled with her hooves. (Much to her mother’s amusement.)

After five minutes of struggling to pop the buckles, Dawn gave up and took a butterknife to them, popping them open one by one.

She gently prised open the black lid of the case to reveal a beautifully crafted sword, the blade shimmering with an ethereal sheen. There was a flawless, milky white gem embedded into the pommel of the sword that looked almost like an eye staring at the two marveling ponies.

There was a small engraving on the blade, near the hilt of the blade in a wonderfully detailed font.

“Xiphis…” Dawn breathed as she gently lifted the sharp edge out of the case, marveling in it’s beauty as she carefully turned it over in her hooves.

“Now that’s a pretty sword.” Quizzy whistled, “Careful with that, it's going to be sharp on both edges.”

Xiphis watched the two ponies marvelling at her, she knew who the smaller one was, Moonlight was the new wielder. But the older, grey mare… she was something different, something that could be dangerous.

Author's Note

Wait a second, the sword is sentient?!?!?!?!

This chapter was another that was needed, Dawn needed to get into the guard before this chapter, but I think I overdid the whole college thing unnecessarily.
Eh, time for Dawn to have a sword as long as her foreleg.
Happy Reading!

Chapter 9 - Xiphis

Three years passed in the turn of a page, Dawn graduated with flying colours. Her relationship with Cobalt had progressed from just meeting on some weekends to the point they were constantly together and had slept together more times than the pair could count (Their first time was very awkward for the young couple and ended in them both passed out on the floor.) Now the pair had moved into roomy apartment that they could afford to rent together in Canterlot, it had a beautiful view of the castle and was close to the little job Dawn had been offered by Legacy in the cafe she had opened on a corner, “Cosy Coffee.”

Cobalt had found a job in Celestia’s School for Gifted Colts and Fillies as their lab technician. The last one had been subject to the upteenth accident in the school and had quit after being turned pink. After the interview, the science teachers in the school had scooped up the blue stallion quickly into their ranks for his talents in chemical reactions and his uncanny ability to mix two chemicals together at the perfect percentages.

Dawn had also stopped dying her coat, after years of being a dull grey like Quizzy and Ratchet, she had worked out that nopony really cared if she shared her colour palette with her parents. She now wore her natural deep purple coat like a badge of honour to go and see Princess Luna.

The walk to the castle didn’t take long, she had been told in another beautiful letter that bringing the sword she had received three years ago would tell the guards she was welcome in the castle without supervision. Dawn smiled at the two guards at the gate, they silently nodded and waved the purple mare through. She wasn’t stopped at the grand doors to the castle either, after pausing a couple times down a long hallway, she knocked on the silvered door to the Nightcourt, it was made of a black obsidian inlaid with countless silver stars and gems.

“Enter!” The regal shout came from inside, Dawn choked down her fear and doubt in herself before walking through the great door, her sword on her back.

“Ah, Dawn!” Luna said, clapping her hooves together like an excited filly, she lit her horn up to close the grand doors with a telekinetic push before trotting down from her throne to meet her little protege. “You’re purple.”

Dawn bowed low to the Princess of the Night, “Yes… It’s my natural colour, Last time I met you I was dying my coat grey to um… to be like my parents.” Dawn said before standing up again, seeing the princess in her full, regal nature was odd after first meeting her more casual nature. “You sent for me?”

Luna nodded, “You remember three years ago when I sent you that letter and you came to meet me?” She asked, Dawn nodded and Luna began to walk away from her towards her throne, “I told you that I would keep a place in the Dreamguard for a little pegasus mare, right?”

“Um, yeah… You did, and then you gave me a sword.” Dawn said, taking the sheathed length of metal off her back.

“That was insurance Dawn, come come into the back here.” Luna mumbled to her before walking behind the throne. “You sleepy?”

Dawn didn’t really feel overly sleepy right now, “No, not really, should I be?” She asked.

Luna walked under a set of curtains and lay down on one of the cushions inside the small, dark room. “Come in and lie down Dawn.”

Dawn followed the princess, “Um, why?” She asked, sitting down on the other oversized cushion, lying the sword to her side.

“Just lie down Dawn, I’ll explain more in the Dreamscape.” Luna said forcefully, “And hold Xiphis against you.”

Dawn nodded, pulling the sword against her and lying down on folded hooves. Within a couple moments, Dawn was peacefully asleep.

--==========================--

Dawn sat up in her blank dreamscape, knocking the sword off her side and jumping at the unexpected clang it produced when it hit the ground. The sword was in the dream with her, that’s not how that works, you couldn’t simply put something in a dream from the real world.

Dawn was about to question it before her dream door was suddenly in her face, making her stumble back in surprise. The door was opened by a curious Princess Luna.

“Ah you are both here, come come Dawn.” Princess Luna beckoned Dawn, then before she could stand up, Luna turned around with a hard stare at the sword Dawn was sitting next to. “Don’t you get any attitude, Missy.”

“What?” Dawn asked, a little shocked, “I didn’t say anything Princess.” She complained, getting to her hooves.

Luna snorted. “I’m not talking to you Dawn, I am having a conversation with Xiphis.”

“Xiphis?” Dawn looked at the sword at her side. “But Xiphis is a sword.”

Luna smiled at the little mare and walked out into the dreamscape, “You have much to learn Dawn.”

Dawn picked up the sword and followed Luna into the starry abyss, still in awe of it’s ethereal beauty.

Luna was sitting down in the middle of the glassy bubbles, holding a small knife in front of her. “This is Carnwennan, he is my knife like Xiphis is your sword.” She smiled and waved her hoof, a tall stallion appeared next to her with a shower of sparkles. Dawn jumped back, her eyes widening at the sudden, surprising appearance of the tan stallion.

“And this is Carnwennan,” The princess gestured at the stallion standing next to her. He was draped with chainmail and had a small, unassuming crown on his head, his glossy fur showing through the holes in the mail.

The tall stallion bowed his head to Dawn respectfully but remained silent, not once taking his critical eyes off the sword in Dawn’s hooves.

“Draw Xiphis Dawn, she probably won’t bite.” Luna said after a moment, motioning with the short blade in her magic towards the still sheathed blade in Dawn’s grasp.

The little grey mare swallowed her doubts and nudged the hilt of the sword, it slipped slightly out of the sheath to reveal a light blue steel blade, Dawn put the sword between her teeth and yanked the rest of the perfect blade out of the sheath. The runes engraved in the blade glowed in the starry light of the dreamscape, bathing the whole blade in a dim blue sheen as dawn held it in her wavering grasp.

“Hold her in your forehoof, the pommel should make that easy.” Luna said, pointing to the straps on the handle of the sword.

Dawn slipped the sword onto her hoof and found that it was easy to wield, giving it a couple clumsy swings. “So, this is Xiphis?” She asked the pair of ponies standing in front of her, both of whom glanced at each other and shared a cheesy grin.

Dawn was quite surprised by the bright flash of light from the sword she was holding and how it shook in her hoof, reverberating with a note that sounded somewhere between a songbird and a cry of joy.

When Dawn could open her eyes again, there was a tall unicorn mare draped in elegant armour standing with her legs spread out, panting and looking extremely surprised.

Before Dawn could say anything, the mare stood up again and announced at the top of her lungs. “Bloody hell Luna, took your bloody time getting a replacement for Zak now didn’t you!”

The princess giggled, covering her mouth with an elegant hoof. “I would have let you out sooner Xiphis, but you know that you need a guard of your own to manifest.” Luna said to the annoyed mare.

“Well, who’s the victim this time Luley?” Xiphis said, turning around to look at the extremely surprised looking Dawn. “Isn’t she missing something Carnie? Ya know,” The unicorn tapped her horn, “She isn’t horny.”

Carnwennan spoke up for the first time with a deep, melodious voice, “This is Dawn, she is an exception to the rules concerning dreamwalking magic. A little bit like you are the exception within the ranks of the Axatite swords, As the first and eldest of the swords, I decided that the two exceptions should be placed together, I think that giving the youngest member of the guard such an exceptional blade would be a good idea.”

Dawn swallowed, “Um, Princess Luna, can I just ask you why we need swords that have magic ponies inside them?” She asked, then added a quick, “No offence…” When she felt Xiphis’ icy blue eyes bore into her like drills.

Luna smiled, “Simple, one reason Dawn. What happens when you’re walking about on your rounds, alone and you get jumped by something bigger than you that has teeth the size of Xipha?” She said pointedly.

“What happens?” Xipha said boisterously, “What happens is that I can pop out and stab that bitch in the eye till help gets here.” She started to parade around the group, “Come to think of it, when is the next time we can go stab some random monster up?”

“Patience Xiphis.” Carnwennan warned.

The taller mare sighed and folded her forehooves, sitting back on her haunches with a grumpy scowl etched onto her face.

Dawn was confused. She was meant to work alongside this loud, aggravating mare?

“Oi, Dawn is it?” Xiphis asked, turning to Dawn, “You look nice enough, I think we’ll work good enough together Looney, you still down for it Carnie?”

Carnwennan sighed and put his hoof to his forehead, “Yes, I endorsed you for a reason Xiphis, now please calm down so we may explain the situation to the obviously painfully clueless Mrs Dawn here.”

Xiphis sat down, apparently satisfied with Carnwennan’s endorsement.

Dawn was confused, she was still reeling from her sword’s sudden and unnerving… excitement. Luna slid her dagger into the sheath under her wing, Carnwennan relaxing a little bit and sitting down.

“The role of the Axatite swords is to supply the dreamguard with a weapon while they are in the dreamscape, as you probably know, unicorn magic doesn’t exactly work as one would expect while one is dreaming.” Princess Luna began, gesturing to the long horn upon her head. “We know that ninety nine times out of a hundred an unicorn’s levitation magic will work as expected inside the dreamworld. Most other spells will do something unexpected or won’t work at all.”

“And this is why we have the Axatite swords, due to the unique magic contained in the metal, they seem to have some affinity with the dreamscape.” She continued, “They have the rare ability to move between the waking world and the dream world along with a consciousness.”

Dawn nodded, “So, the swords move between the real world and here whenever we sleep?” She asked, trying to clarify it.

Carnwennan nodded, still watching Xiphis clutched in Dawn’s hooves like an eagle.

“And you have the swords instead of using your magic to fight stuff, right?” Dawn questioned, sliding Xiphis into her plain black scabbard.

“That is correct Dawn.” Luna said, “I’m not going to give an example of what happens to other magic inside the dreamscape because I have no idea what it might do.”

Dawn smiled, “So, does this mean I’ve got the place in the guard?” She asked probably a little too excitedly because Luna had to suppress a little giggle, making Dawn feel a little bit put out, her ears and wings drooping a little, “M-Maybe not then?”

“You have a place on the training program Dawn, I have had to change how Misty operates considering you haven’t exactly got a horn.” Luna said, tapping her hooves together. “You are going to meet the other guards soon too, and i’m warning you that they are probably the least professional bunch in private.”

“Whatever do you mean Princess?” Dawn asked, getting a little chuckle from Carnwennan.

Luna answered Dawn with a happy, distant smile, “You will find out given time little Dawn.”

They parted ways there, Dawn trotted back to her glossy bubble before tapping it with a hoof and feeling herself getting pulled back into her own dream before jolting awake in the pillow laden room, the princess gazing at her with a happy, wide smile.

Dawn’s legs had gone to sleep with how she was lying on them and felt like wet logs underneath her, she stretched her legs out and tried to stand up, wobbling and falling on her side. Princess Luna stifled a giggle at Dawn’s clumsiness before using a gentle magical grasp to pull Dawn back to her hooves.

“Thank you Princess.” Dawn breathed, testing her balance on her slowly awakening legs.

The older pony smiled and rose to her hooves, her silver horseshoes clicking rhythmically on the pristine marble floor as she walked from the cozy room back out into the throne room. “Come come Dawn, what you have just been shown is barely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how the guard works.” Luna said back into the room where Dawn was slowly wobbling out, Xiphis balanced on her back.

Dawn followed the Princess back into the throne room, the feeling having returned to her legs again. “What do you mean Princess?” She asked.

“I mean that you are to begin your training as soon as you can.” Princess Luna turned to Dawn and smiled, flaring her wings out dramatically, “For thau this day shall becomest a member of the Dreamguard of the Princess of the Night!”

With that, the elegant, tall mare made a dramatic exit, flaring her horn and tossing her mane, vanishing in a flurry of midnight purple feathers. While this exit was dramatic and well timed, it was definitely not very useful since half of the feathers flew right into Dawn’s face. The little pegasus was rather surprised by the assault of fluffy plumage and fell back on her rump, her face now covered entirely with feathers. She blinked a couple of times and shook her head to get the feathers off her face, succeeding mostly besides a couple of stragglers she brushed away from her face with a hoof.

“Alright then…” Dawn breathed, putting Xiphis back between her wings before starting to try and work her way through the labyrinth of castle hallways.

Author's Note

Aaaaaand this was a horrible chapter to write. Personally, this one is my least favourite one so far because to me it feels awfully rushed, and unnecessarily so.

For anyone interested, Xiphis is a Greek Xiphos and Carnwennan is the legendary dagger belonging to King Arthur. Yes Excalibur is in this story but she is much less important.

I do hope that you enjoy this trainwreck of a chapter, happy reading!

Chapter 10 - Homeword Bound

Dawn wasn’t home yet, she said she’d be home within two hours and she wasn’t! These were the thoughts spinning around Cobalt’s worried head as he waited for his marefriend to get home from what she had described as a “Job interview with the Princess.”

He was about to grab his scarf and begin the walk to the castle to find his mare before he remembered that Dawn could handle herself, she went to the gym and did martial arts lessons. She’d be perfectly safe out in the streets of Canterlot at night!

His magic reached out and grabbed the door handle, his scarf coiling around his neck in his cerulian glow. Then he remembered that she was also carrying a sword and pulled his scarf off again.

“She’s probably just gone to visit Legacy and make sure the shop is alright.” Cobalt muttered, beginning to pace in worry again. “Y-Yeah, she’s with Legacy.” His method of reassuring himself wasn’t at all going to plan.

Cobalt had grown into an even more handsome stallion than he was when Dawn first met him. He still wore his round glasses but now with a slightly weaker prescription, occasionally pushing them up his nose with a hoof.

He forced himself to go and make a cup of coffee to take his mind off his marefriend not being home yet. It didn’t work very well, but now the colt was caffeinated and overthinking things as he drank the hot liquid.

And the coffee finished him off, Cobalt quickly found himself outside, wearing his scarf, trotting quickly towards the castle, his horn lit up to provide light in the darkening streets. He was completely unaware of Dawn exiting the castle at almost exactly the same time. Cobalt was determined that he would find his marefriend.

Dawn on the other hoof was taking her time, her legs still just a little bit wobbly from sleeping on them, she walked along the cobbles, using her wings to keep Xiphis from slipping off her back. For now she was stuck with her thoughts and her quiet hooves on the cobbled street. She hadn’t been expecting to be away this long and she certainly didn’t expect Cobalt to come looking for her in his worry. If anything, the sudden appearance of the blue stallion in the distance perplexed and slightly amused her.

As he trotted down the road, Cobalt’s Marefriend came into view picking her way across the cobbles and he beamed with elated joy and relief that she was safe, albait armed and looking drunk.

“Dawny!” He cried, running forward to greet her, nuzzling the surprised mare’s cold cheek.

“H-Heya Coby, what you doing out here?” She asked, returning his affectionate gesture with vigour, but still having no idea what this handsome colt was doing out in the cold.

“Well… you were late…” He began, trying to hide his worry for her behind a manly steel. “Oh screw it… I was worried for you…” He squeaked, trying to hide his embarrassed blush by nuzzling her cheek again.

“Awww!” Dawn cooed, her cheeks going a little rosy too. “That’s so sweet of you, coming to find your marefriend out in the dark.”

“S’nuthin much.” Cobalt mumbled, “Are you alright? You look all wobbly.”

Dawn nodded and started walking towards in the direction of their apartment block, telling him the story of what’d happened between her and the princess, how the sword that Cobalt was now floating beside them actually had a personality that could manifest with a body in dreams. Overall, Cobalt had become more and more perplexed by the mare leaning against him to the point he didn’t even realise that they’d reached their destination.

Dawn smiled as he clumsily hid his embarrassment at not understanding a word Dawn had said to him before he tapped in the passcode to get into the apartment complex 4779 and pushed the door open into the hall. Cobalt held the door open for his marefriend to walk through before following her into the tall building.

The pair waited for the lift to come down, still chattering about what Dawn had done when she was out. Eventually the trundley box arrived and they stepped into it together, Dawn stood close to Cobalt, she wasn’t very fond of elevators but feeling Cobalt’s presence next to her, his slow breathing gently pressing his ribs against her side and occasional twitch ridding her of her nerves in the moving box and allowed her to stay inside without a second thought of discomfort.

The lift slowed to a stop at the seventh floor, the pair separated out of the small kiss they had shared and walked out of the lift together, leaning against each other’s shoulders. Cobalt floated out the key to their abode and opened the door to the spacey apartment. Dawn smiled as she walked into their private space and ruffled her feathers before tossing the scarf she was wearing onto the rack and jumping onto the sofa, Cobalt grinned and floated his scarf onto the rack, placing Xiphis on their table before sliding onto the sofa with his marefriend.

“So Dawny,” He purred into her ear, placing his hooves around her waist. “You think the Princess likes you?”

Dawn couldn’t help but blush, she was in a rather compromising position now with the bigger stallion wrapping his hooves around her. “Y-Yes I think so Cobalt.” She murmured after a few moments.

Cobalt smiled, tracing a circle on Dawn’s belly with one of his hooves, making the little mare squirm, “Good, do you know if you’ve got the job?” He asked.

“Well I need to d-do the training first,” Dawn stammered, nuzzling his cheek. “Will you stop that till we’re in bed? I’m hungry.” She protested as Cobalt’s hoof drifted lower on her body.

“Sorry! Sorry…” Cobalt said, removing his hooves from her ticklish belly and putting them around her chest instead in a warm embrace. “I just got a little excited…”

“You can be as excitable as you want later boo, but right now, Dawny want sandwich.” Dawn cooed, putting her hooves on his.

“Your wish is my command, m’lady.” Cobalt snickered and slid out from behind Dawn before trotting into the kitchen, “Any requests for this evening Love?”

“Nope! Surprise me!” Dawn replied to the colt, snuggling into the sofa and letting her wings fan out behind her. Dawn relaxed, the day’s trials and tribulations were over and now it was time for her to lie down and cuddle with a dopey colt till she fell asleep in his embrace.

A couple minutes later, the aforementioned colt walked back in to where Dawn was spreading herself out, a pair of sandwiches on plates following him in his magical aurora. This was both a positive and a negative for Dawn, on one hoof, she now had the dopey colt that she wanted to cuddle within cuddling range. While on the other hoof she had to sit up and fold her wings in so he could sit down next to her.

Dawn drew herself up and stretched her forehooves high above her head, scrunching up her muzzle as he sat down with their sandwiches. After she was satisfied, Dawn put her hooves down, placing her hooves in her lap and waiting for sandwich delivery.

Cobalt didn’t make her wait for long before floating the sandwich down to her. She grinned and took it from the plate hungrily, biting down on the fluffy bread and daisy filling. She beamed at Cobalt’s unnerving ability in sandwichcraft and how he managed to make it so very tasty even though it was just two slices of bread, some butter and a hoofful of daisies.

After they had eaten, Dawny felt positively great. She was warm, full of sandwich and had a dopey colt with his hooves around her. Life couldn’t get better in her opinion. After lying on the sofa in quiet mirth for a while, Cobalt nuzzled her ear.

“Do you want to do anything else this evening? Go on any more adventures?” He purred, holding his hooves comfortably tight around her barrel.

“Nu-uh.” Dawn said childishly, her forehooves curled under her chin. “I just wanna lie here and be the little spoon.”

Cobalt’s quiet chuckle made Dawn’s cheeks glow before she felt him shift behind her to get more comfortable with her wings tickling his belly. “You always say something like that, anyway, tell me about this ‘training’ you were talking about with the princess.”

Dawn snuggled against her coltfriend, “Well it’s mostly physical stuff, like swordplay and the like, there’s also some more dream magic things that Luna wasn’t sure that I could learn ‘cos I’m obviously not an unicorn.” She explained, putting her hoof to her forehead where a horn would sprout if she were an unicorn.

“Swordplay? How you gonna do that darling?” Cobalt asked, tapping her forehead, “No telekinesis.”

“They’re gonna teach me how to do it with my hooves.” Dawn replied, pushing her head against his hoof endearingly, not at all trying to hide her cheeks flushing from the dopey colt. “So I don’t need telekinesis.”

Dawn stretched out on the couch, trying not to get her wings in Cobalt’s face. “When we gonna get a new lampshade for the bulb in here after you knocked it off?” She asked, Cobalt was rather prone to using his chemical licence to get some of the more illicit chemicals available to schools and, for lack of a better word, play with them. A couple of weeks ago, he had been toying with a way to launch a brick across a room and had managed to nearly brain Dawn with the sailing projectile which smashed the bulb in their main room and ruin the shade they had on the light fitting. Dawn was not impressed with her friend when he had managed to get her off the ceiling.

“I’ll get one soon Darling, I’ve not had any time since we I started at the school.” He said, looking up at the bare bulb swinging above their heads as he slid his hooves around her belly, making her squeak at the sudden tickly presence.

“Oh yeah, about that. Anything interesting happen at work today?” Dawn asked, lying her head back on cobalt’s shoulder and letting her wings hang down limply at her sides.

“Nah not really, another boring meeting that I didn’t actually need to attend, more random ponyfeathers with kids not behaving and one of the unicorns having a magical outburst.” He said, sighing. “Working in a school is a lot harder than I thought it would be and I’m not even a teacher.”

“Dear dear.” Dawn murmured into his ear, using a free hoof to gently stroke his cheek, “You’re doing great.”

“Yeah yeah, best labbie an’ all of that.” He purred back, nuzzling Dawn’s ear. “I get to blow something up tomorrow so that’s a bonus.”

“As long as you don’t send a heavy object sailing through the air, I’m sure it’ll be all fine.” She teased him, rolling over against him so she was facing towards her stallion. “Don’t fling a brick at anyone, alright?”

Cobalt’s ears folded against his head, sheepish. “Shuddup.” He grumbled, looking away from her like a foal given a telling off, Dawn’s amused smirk just added to his embarrassment as she tittered to the stupid inside joke they shared.

“You know i’m just playing with you Coby, all fair competition Darl’.” Dawn drawled, nuzzling against Cobalt to plant a kiss on his nose.

The pair lay there in comfort together until their clock chimed eleven o’clock, demanding that they went to bed in some reasonable time. Therefore they did, snuggling under the covers together until Dawn fell asleep in Cobalt’s sleepy embrace.

--==========================--

Dawn opened her eyes on her bright white dream, the sterile environment only marred by the little black speck off in the distance that was her door.

She wasn’t really in the mood for a her own mind tonight and thought she’d go and find some interesting pony’s dream to peek in on, so she glanced at her door and beckoned it over, it rushed towards her almost infinitely fast, stopping just in front of her nose. She was getting faster at bringing her door close enough to touch.

The starry expanse was as beautiful as it was any night, the bubbles glinting in the ethereal light that seemed to come from both nowhere and everywhere at once. Dawn skipped past a few, peering through the glassy membrane at the small scene playing out inside. Dawn quickly noticed a couple of the other members of the dreamguard off in the distance all gathered around a bubble, touching it one by one to venture inside.

Her curiosity piqued, she felt herself almost dragged towards the bauble the other guards had launched themselves into. The bubble was way different to the others, its translucent surface marred by what looked like a thick grey smoke obscuring the dream.

Dawn sat and stared at the bubble, her head tilted in confusion. Almost before she could stop herself, Dawn had her hoof hovered above the glassy surface of the bubble, about to touch it to enter the dream held within the translucent sphere. She sat there with her hoof hovering, just about to touch and enter the dream.

She’d just seen four full fledged dreamguards enter this dream, their swords weren’t drawn but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be any less dangerous venturing into the obscured orb.

Dawn hesitated with her outstretched hoof nearly touching the orb, would she get in trouble for following the guard into somewhere that might be dangerous? Or would she be able to pass it off as learning how they operate through operation.

Before she knew it, Dawn had pressed her hoof to the bubble and watched as the dreamscape seemed to melt away into nothing.

Dawn felt a jolt go through her as her eyes adjusted to the murkiness in the dream, the pony was probably dreaming about a fire, that’s why it was so smokey. Dawn drew in a breath and instinctively started coughing hard as the acidic tongues of smoke burned at her lungs, lowering herself down close to the ground, she crawled beneath the haze in search of the dreamer or the guards.

As she was crawling away from the source of the blaze, the sounds of crackling fire and the wisps of ash floating in the air died away to the point where Dawn could stand up without choking. Eventually she came to a long corridor emblazoned with regal tapestries and paintings of ponies that looked like they had enough money to pay off the entire Equestrian deficit.

There was little smoke in the corridor, letting Dawn stand up and breathe effortlessly. She trotted down the long corridor, spying a grand door down at the end. It didn’t take her long to trot down the dark straight, there were no windows in the hall and the only light came from the gas lamps adorning the walls, spaced out in a seemingly patternless way.

From under the door, Dawn could hear muffled conversation between ponies, unable to make out any words through the thick wood of the door. Dawn stopped herself opening the door and just barging through, the dreamguards could be on the other side and she knew that if they caught her in somepony else’s dream again there would be repercussions Dawn wasn’t too enthusiastic about facing.

On the other hoof, the little grey mare held the greatest folly of curiosity which was doing it’s best to take her over as her forehoof reached out to grasp the doorknob. The moment her hoof came into contact with it was the last Dawn saw of the door as her vision was interrupted by flash of blinding white and she found herself in the hooves of her coltfriend, gently nuzzling his chest in her sleep.

Dawn yawned and wriggled a forehoof free of Cobalt’s warm embrace to rub the sleep from her tired eyes, he was still sound asleep, breathing slowly with a smile tugging at his lips. She settled down into his side, cuddling against his soft fur and lying her head against his shoulder.

What Dawn did not see was the pair of turquoise eyes staring at the young pegasus from just outside the window, she was just too rapt by listening to her coltfriend’s breathing and feeling the gentle pressure from his ribs press against her body.

Nothing else mattered to her at that moment besides the gentle beating of Cobalt’s heart beating slightly out of rhythm with hers, nothing in the world.

Author's Note

Aaaaaaaa please stop me from making this about Dawn and Cobalt! I need to get the guard in now. That's the next chapter I promise okpleasedontkillme...

Anyway, besides my inability to write, Happy reading :derpytongue2: